Hybrid
by ChaosCarlos
Summary: Thirteen years after the Auriga crashes into Earth, a new batch of Hybrids are created but will they be more human than monster?
1. Birth

_United System Military (USM) experiment records_

_Date: October 10th, 2394.13 years after Earth Disaster_

_Location: Cabara (Lv326), USM Bio-Weapons Research Station._

Sitting in his office, General Frank Morrison was waiting for the latest report from the stations lead scientist when his office door burst open revealing an over exited Dr Hikaru Kasaragi rushing in arms filled with files on one of his latest projects.

"General I have wond-" the Dr ended his sentence prematurely as he noticed the General pointing his side arm straight at his face.

"What the HELL is wrong with you!? Do you realize I could have blown your head off man?"

"I-I'm sorry General, b-but I just got the test results back and-" again his sentence ended before he could complete it but this time by the general's lack of patience for Kasaragi. Not with the outburst but he just didn't like scientists, why he was stationed there must be a punishment.

"Kasaragi! Stop mumbling and get to the point! What results!? You run so many damn experiments and you expect me to know which one YOU'RE talking about!?" The General didn't hate Kasaragi, no of course not but the man was just too...happy in his opinion. No one should take such pleasure in the work this man does.

"Oh...well sir, the 'Hybrid Program' results sir, we've gotten some astounding results. Infact the new methods in genet-" Damn this man didn't know when to shut up, it made the General wish he had been just that little bit more trigger happy than usual when Kasaragi burst through his office door.

Rubbing the bridge of his nose, the General interrupted again. "Kasaragi. Just stick to the results, and I'll read the details in your COMPLETE report."

"Oh...uhhh...sorry General sir. As I was saying, we've gotten our results back with a success rate of One-Hundred Percent. There should be no problem with the hybrids!"

"Wait...did you say HYBRIDS...as in more than ONE!?" The General looked almost shocked at Kasaragi's statement...almost.

"Yes sir, we've managed to create ten embryos, every single one perfect in every way. Actually sir I'm here to request authorization to have the embryos implanted into vaulanteer 'mothers' sir. And I'm afraid sir that I can't wait too long for an answer, if these embryos aren't implanted within a week they could suffer serious damage if not destruction."

The General already had his orders regarding this particular experiment, when or if Kasaragi is successful the embryo is to be implanted into the 'mother' immediately, but TEN, he'd need more female vaulanteers.

"Alright, I already have one vaulanteer for you Kasaragi, I'll get you your other nine within three days. If not well...one will do." With that Kasaragi left to prepare an embryo and the General got on the the line to USM headquarters to deliver the news.

_Five Days Later_

"Here's the last of the vaulanteers Dr, Corporal Susan Jenson may I introduce Dr Hikaru Kasaragi our lead researcher. He'll be the one performing the procedure on you."

"It's a pleasure to meet you sir!"

Dr Kasaragi smiled at the young woman, hoping she was up to the task of birthing one of the hybrids.

"Tell me Corporal-"

"Susan, sir..." she interrupted. "Just Susan, my tour of duty ends tonight."

"Really? General Sir are you sure about...this? No, security risks or anything involved here?" The look of absolute RAGE on the Generals face caused Kasaragi to immediately wish he hadn't opened his big fat mouth.

"DR KASARAGI!! I'll have you KNOW that Corporal Jenson his a HIGHLY decorated member of the USM! Not only that but she is ALSO my Grand-daughter! You WILL apologize and show her the proper respect or so help me I'll have you teaching high school chemistry to convicts on the prison moon Ama!"

"Forgive me General and Corp-I mean miss Jenson. I was out of line to ask just a thing. I hope my outburst hasn't altered your decision to take part?" Kasaragi held his breath while waiting for Susan's answer.

"Not at all doctor, I'm doing this for the USM, I'd like to be of use to my government even after my tour of duty but I also want a family and this...situation offers me both."

'_Thank Buddha_' thought Kasaragi. "Well miss Jenson if you'll please follow me, we'll prepare you for the procedure while the embryo is brought to the operating room."

_Three hours later in the Observation Room_

General Morrison stood in the observation room just as his grand-daughter was being wheeled out to the recovery ward to ensure the embryo sticks. As we watched he watched her leaving Dr Kasaragi walked towards the General.

"How long until we know for sure that the results of the procedure?"

"It'll talk a few days sir, possibly a week. But I'm confident that the procedure will work. We've already seen successful results from the first, second and third vaulanteers. The embryos are strong, even in this stage they're showing powerful survival attributes."

"Just to be sure these embryos aren't going to result in the same method of birth as the creatures, am I correct? I'd hate to have to tell my daughter that her child died for reasons I cannot explain." Saying this the Genral turned from the window and looked at Kasaragi.

"No sir, we predict that the birthing will be 100 human, however the gestation period will be shorter than usu-"

"What!? How short are we talking about? This wasn't in your report, Doctor!"

"Well, sir you see we only noticed it in our recent scans of the first and second vaulanteer, as soon as the embryos are taken from their cold storage containers and implanted into the womb the gestation period excellerates. I can't be too sure until I re-scan every vaulanteer, but my estimate would be four months, give or take."

"Sweet Mother of God...I expect a report on this and the results of every scan on my desk by the end of the week. I want a full range of tests and simulations on the gestation periods of each embryo. Headquarters is going to want to know this and they're going to want to know in full detail!"

"Yes sir." With that General Morrison left to check up on his grand-daughter.

_Four Months Later_

"Aggghhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!" The screaming of Susan Jenson could be heard across several wards. During her pregnancy she herself had become far more aggressive and territorial than usual in a pregnancy, infact each vaulanteer had developed this common trait. Dr Kasaragi ensured the General that it was a side effect of the hormones from the child within. But now she was in labour and was to give birth to her child. She was the first of the ten vaulanteers to go into labour and both General Morrison and Dr Kasaragi were anxious to see the results of six years of research.

"Now when the contractions start again Susan I want you to push and push hard!" Dr Elizabeth Thompson said. "Ok...now...PUSH!! That's it! Harder. Push harder!"

"I AM PUSHING!!" Susan screamed, she'd been at this for almost twelve hours now and it was beginning to strain her. Then all of a sudden another scream echoed off the walls of the delivery room, the scream of a new born baby. Dr Thompson cut the cord and handed the baby to Susan.

"Congratulations Susan, you have a healthy baby boy."

From the observation room both General Morrison and Dr Kasaragi smiled but for different reasons. The General because now he was a grandfather and Kasaragi because six years of grueling research had finally paid off.

"Congratulations General...or should I say grandpa?" The General scowled for a brief second and then broke into a wide grin. Indeed he was a grandpa now and to the most powerful being known to mankind.

"And Congratulations to you too Dr Kasaragi for succesfully breeding the first _true_ HumanXenomorph Hybrid."


	2. Over

_Five Years Later_

Michael Jenson, the first born HumanXenomorph Hybrid was celebrating his fifth birthday with the other XenoSapien children, as they'd been called. He looked like any normal five year old should at his age. At the party were all the 'mothers and fathers' of the other XenoSapien children along with Dr Kasaragi and General Morrison.

"I'm wondering Kasaragi, did the human donor have black hair like these kids? I've never seen hair that dark before." Even after helping to raise his great-grandson he still couldn't get over how dark his and the other childrens hair was.

"No General, actually she was blonde I believe. I think this is one of the few characteristics inherited from the Xenomorph genes." replied Dr Kasaragi. Even after five years his research was still continuing but results were few and far between these days.

"Few characteristics? I thought your report to headquarters said they'd develop more than a 'few'." Although he kept his tone neutral, Kasaragi read the message underneath the generals words loud and clear. "You're not hiding anything are you doctor?"

"What? No! It's just..sir, what I meant was that they'll develop far more characteristics as they age. If you remember their blood didn't become acidic until they turned three, I'm sure you remember how difficult a time that was for all of us especially when number seven...I mean, James cut himself and bled through four levels of our labs."

He did have a point, they seemed to develop more Xenomorph traits with each passing year, which raised more questions than answers; like how far would they develop and when would the Xenomorph clash with the Human? It worried General Morrison to no end. He adored Michael and to think he might turn into one of those things sent a cold chill down his spine, but he hoped against hope that these changed would have a limit and the human and the xenomorph would find a balance.

"What are the chances of the more violent Xenomorph instincts and behavior developing?" He didn't want to ask it but he had a duty to headquarters and for over thirty years duty has been Frank Morrison's middle name.

"I'll be honest with you sir, I don't know. But as of yet all of the changes have been physical in nature and the only one to completely emulate the Xenomorphs has been their acid blood. The black hair I'd put down to being somewhat reminiscent of the natural black colour of the exoskeleton."

At that moment Susan Jenson walked out of her kitchen carrying a cake with five candles on it while singing the traditional happy birthday song. After the cake was consumed young Michael sought out his grandfather to thank him for his present, but while there he overheard some things he shouldn't have, his natural human curiosity got the better of him and he decided to question his grandfather on them.

"Grandpa-Frank?" As usual tugging on the Generals shirt got his attention.

"Michael! Did you like your present?" The general smiled as Michael nodded enthusiastically.

"Grandpa...what's a Zeno-Moth?" Dr Kasaragi sudden look of panic at the childs question caused a few heads to turn while the general's eyes shot wide open from being so careless as to the topic of discussion around the children.

"Uh...Michael, wh-where did you hear that?" in answer Michael pointed to Dr Kasaragi and said.

"I heard Dr Kasaragi say it. So what is it? Do you have one? Can I see it? Is it scary?"

'_Great_' thought the General. That's all he needs an inquisitive child asking about top-secret research that he'd been discussing carelessly with Dr Kasaragi at a children's party.

"Well Michael-"

"Grandpa...I don't like that name. Call me Mike like mommy and Grandma do!"

Sighing the general nodded and kneeled to whisper in his grandson. "Well...Mike. You see Grandpa does a lot of secret work and you know what a secret is don't you?" Mike nodded. "Well, a Xenomorph is a BIG secret and NO-ONE can know about it. Can you keep it secret Mike?" again Mike nodded. "Good! Now go back and open the rest of your presents and eat more cake. I'll see you later after I talk to your mommy." With that Mike left. The General turned to Kasaragi almost fuming from the ears from is own incompetence. "Kasaragi, small ears are becoming too keen. Our discussion should have stayed in the labs, not here." Looking back to Mike he sighed. "I think you should begin testing their sight and hearing tomorrow, I'm sure Mike was on the other side of the room when we were discussing the...X-word." As Kasaragi nodded, still in disbelief that Mike had overheard them the General walked away to talk with his grand-daughter.

_Three Months Later_

Dr Kasaragi was going over the latest results on the hybrids abilities to see and hear when the General walked in and threw a folder down in front of him.

"It's time to pack up Kasaragi." The doctor looked up in confusion then opened the folder and began to read. As his eyes skimmed the first few lines he shot up from his chair outraged by what he read.

"They can't do this!! We still have so much research to do and the long term benef-" the General cut him off.

"The LONG term is right Kasaragi. We green lighted this program to create super soldiers for the USM but so far the results are not worth the costs. Not only would breeding them be expensive but already training a single soldier is equally as expensive. Not only that but we'd have to wait twenty years for any positive results, this program is too long term for the USM, I'm sorry Kasaragi but your funding has been pulled. The Hybrid Project is over."


	3. Termination

_United Systems Military Communicae: Gold Channel._

_Authorization Requested..._

_User: Gen.F.Morrison_

_Access Code: 13B7XM-USM33RT-WE90PZ_

_Code Accepted, Thank you General Morrison._

_URGENT - RE-HYBRID PROGRAM_

_From: USM Chief of Staff - Major General P. Stone_

_To: USM Bio-Weapons Base Leader, General F. Morrison, Cabara_

_Morrison, now that we've pulled the plug on the Hybrid Program we have come to the decision that for the safety of the citizens of Cabara and all other human colonized worlds the XenoSapien hybrids are to be TERMINATED affective immediately. After careful review of Dr Kasaragi's work and the recommendations of our own scientific advisors we have deemed it too great a security risk to allow Xenomorphs capable of thinking at a superior human level to exist, even if they look like children now they could possibly turn on us like they did on the Auriga, which as you're aware caused the deaths of countless billions on Earth eighteen years ago._

_I am aware that your granddaughter and nine other women have spent considerable time raising the hybrids. As compensation the USM will give each woman 10,000,000 Credits to do with as she sees fit._

_When dead each body is to be cremated and the ashes spread across space. All records are to be destroyed. All tissue samples are to be destroyed. Dr Kasaragi is to be transferred to Jupiter Station for re-assignment. All Xenomorph eggs captured from the hive discovered on Junon eleven years ago are to be shipped by the USM transport vessel 'Poseidon' where they will be shipped to a bio-hazard containment center on Nemsi._

_Any and all records mentioning the existence of Xenomorphs are to be deleted. You are to return to normal biological research. _

_Dr Thompson who delivered all of the hybrids is to report to USM Medical H.Q. to report on the gestation, births and growth of the hybrids. What we will do with her afterwards is not your concern. Follow these instructions to the letter and do not allow personal feelings to conflict with your duty._

_Maj. General P. Stone_

_USM Chief of Staff_

_End Transmission..._

General Morrison felt sick after reading these latest orders. Ordered to kill his own great-grandson. Sure he wasn't his own flesh and blood but he was family. He knew he shouldn't have gotten so close to the boy, but what could he do? He couldn't leave his only granddaughter to raise her child alone. Her mother lived in a completely different system and she had no one else on Cabara. Not having time to marry while raising her child. Her child. God! If he terminates...no...murders Michael then he'll effectively kill Susan aswell. Michael is her world, her life all she has to live for. The military and motherhood are all she knows. He'd been ordered to end her life as a mother and she'd never be accepted back into the military for losing a child. They'd deem her suicidal and too much of a risk to her fellow soldiers.

He couldn't, WOULDN'T do that to Susan or Michael! He'd have to think of a way to save them both and the other hybrids. Good thing they want to cremate the bodies. Cremation? There'd be nothing left of the corpses to iden-yes...Frank you're a genius!..a plan is forming.

_Twenty-Four Hours Later_

_URGENT - RE-TERMINATION COMPLETE_

_From: USM Bio-Weapons Base Leader, General F. Morrison, Cabara_

_To: USM Chief of Staff - Major General P. Stone_

_Sir. I am regretful to report that I have followed your orders to the letter sir. All ten hybrids are dead and their ashes are being spread across space as I make this report. I have wired the 10,000,000 credits to each mother as you requested. Records will show that they received the money as payment from a large corporation for an industrial 'accident' that happened four days ago that resulted in the deaths of ten children and seven adults. Not wanting to go to court the company is paying for funeral expenses and a large credit settlement for each mother._

_Also sir I must report that due to these events I must inform you that I resign my commission from the USM to console my grieving granddaughter. I am sorry if this comes as an inconvenience sir but I do not believe I can properly manage this facility any longer. My part in the termination of the hybrids has left a sour taste in my mouth and further exposure to secretive experiments and classified reports will not benefit myself nor the USM._

_Retired General F. Morrison_

_USM Bio-Weapons Research Base, Cabara._

_End Transmission..._

With that done General Morrison packed his bags and left the base one last time, heading for his personal transport ship that he'd bought three years previously. Boarding the spacious craft he checked on his 'cargo'. Sleeping on temporary makeshift beds were ten children and his granddaughter Susan. Fuck the USM, if they wanted animals to slaughter there are plenty of cows on Argis, Cabaras nearest neighboring planet.

Settling into the pilots chair the now retired General Frank Morrison started the pre-launch sequence. Getting authorization to leave from traffic control Frank launched the 'Alabama' which he named after the old US Battleship of WWII, (one of his passions) into the atomsphere.With that he and his now rather large family set off into deep space. Where they'd end up? He'd worry about that later, right now he has fake I.D's to construct.


	4. New Beginnings

_Fourteen Years Later_

_Location: GemCom Industries Outer Rim Transport._

_Date: August 23rd, 2413. Three years after Praxis-Minor Civil War._

Mike Jenson was relaxing on a luxury transport vessel on his way to the recently terraformed outer rim colony of Vadina, the new home of he, his mother and the other nine hybrids. His great-grandfather had taught him and the others how to survive and with his mothers help and her now unlimited funds thanks to some strategically placed investments, he and the others were living comfortably. He was always told by his Grandpa-Frank that they should live as far away from the core systems that have heavy USM presence as possible. The Outer Rim has always been their safe haven and with this latest planet finally completed with twelve new colonies already set up and three still under construction he and the others would finally be at the furthest reaches of the USM. For a few years at least.

_"Attention passengers, we are now approaching Vadina space dock. Please remain seated during docking. Attendants will escort you through customs with your belongings shortly. Have a nice day and thank you for flying GemCom."_

It was times like this that he missed his Grandpa-Frank, moving to a new home wasn't all that strange for him, they'd done it countless times. Most of the hybrids began calling themselves the nomadic race, always on the move. This would be the second time they've moved without Grandpa-Frank. The first time was three years ago, near the end of the Praxis-Minor Civil War that they'd somehow gotten caught up in. The USM had decided to intervene after almost a year and a half of bloodshed. Grandpa-Frank had been killed when a smartgunner fighting for the FreePraxis Rebels had killed him and fifty seven other people before being gunned down himself by a contingent of Colonial Marines. They'd managed to drag Frank's broken body onboard the 'Alabama' and then launched themselves into space. They had cremated him in the 'Alabama' on the nearest available planet. It wasn't right to fly in the old girl without Grandpa-Frank, so they decided to send her to the great beyond with him.

Now they simply jumped planet by expensive commercial transports. Expensive enough to 'forget' who their passengers were if the USM comes looking. Thankfully when Grandpa-Frank had _killed_ him and the other hybrids he'd cleaned the paper trail up so well that the USM still hadn't discovered the truth. But that didn't mean they weren't looking, just because there weren't any warrants out for their arrest didn't mean they were safe. The smallest screw up could reveal them for what they really were. Xenomorph Hybrids. one cut and a single drop of acid blood and it's all over.

Thankfully most 'accidents' have been in private. But there's more to the challenge of being normal now. In fourteen years more Xenomorph habits have developed. Grandpa-Frank made a point of telling the hybrids when they were old enough what Xenomorphs were, what they could do and their biology, which explained a lot of freaky shit that happened when Mike was growing up.

Aside from the acid blood, impossibly blacker than black hair and excellent eyesight and hearing they'd all developed incredible strength, speed and stamina. Not once have any of them gotten sick, which was a god send. It would have raised too many red flags if any of them had to go to a doctor and have him draw blood to get only a melted needle in return.

They had grown, each of them into their own. But like all groups human or otherwise there is always a dominant male and female. Mike was the dominant male, but all decisions were finalized by Jenny, the first born female XenoSapien. Grandpa-Frank kept saying that it must be the Xenomorph's instinctual hierarchy. The Queen was dominant over all others, even the King. This got a good few jokes out of the other guys. Xenomorph or not, boys will be boys.

Back to the present, Mike was leaving the ship, he was alone. It would have been too suspicious if they all arrived at the same time. Ten people all roughly the same age with the same exact colour hair on the same transport would have raised a few eyebrows. Thankfully he himself didn't get any looks, blending into the crowd was a skill he'd developed since the age of ten. And with that he vanished in the crowd into colony eight.

_Meanwhile..._

_Location: Vadina, caves near colony twelve_.

"Jesus Christ! What the Fuck is that!?" Private Peter Gouder of the Vidina Colonial Marines was on routine patrol of the recently opened Colony Twelve. Serving ten years with the USM Marines Corps he decided to take it easy transferring to the Colonial Marines, whose job includes being the police, army and the local exterminators if anything nasty shows its face.

Now on patrol, he'd say he's found something nasty. Four days ago a survey team going over some of the unexplored caves in the area disappeared. Private Gouder and his team were to investigate what had become of them. He's now wishing he'd stayed with the USM.

"I don't care what the fuck it is Gouder! Shoot first and ask for ID later!" Corporal Lance Walters shouted to his subordinate. With that the five marines opened fire. But before they could kill the creature it impaled Private Dan Carson with it's bladed tail. As the creature fell to its death, the now four marines, tried to asses the situation.

"DAN! Fuck!" Gouder wasted no time, shooting the creature again for killing his fellow marine. "Fucking bastard!! Die! Die! Die!!"

"Gouder! Stand down! Conserve your ammo! We don't know how many of these things there are!" Indeed they didn't for at that exact moment Corporal Lance Walters, 29 year old son of a former USM marine was impaled through the back by the tail of another creature and went limp from it's fast acting neuro-toxin. Another creature jumped Private Ben Keller tearing him appart. Gouder wasted no time in killing the creature tearing Keller appart but in doing so left his side exposed to the first creature and got clawed in the face for it. His left eye damaged he fell to the floor aimed and fired at the first creature, but it anticipated his movements and jumped on him sending its second mouth through his helmet and deep into his skull killing him.

The other two marines were similarly disposed of by another creature who's appeared behind them. Dragging the bodies of their dead comrade and their victims away the creatures let out little hisses every now and then. Entering the nearby caves they disappeared as fast as they'd appeared.

_Vadina Colonial Marine H.Q._

"D-did you record those last transmissions before they cut out?" Commander Jeffrey Richards asked his communications officer.

"..." The communications officer was in too much shock to answer at first. When his brain finally processed the commanders question he replied "Uh-Yes sir. We-we got everything. Should I report this to USM H.Q. sir?"

"No. I will. Increase security around the perimeter of the colony. I don't want any of those things coming anywhere near our citizens. Understood marine?"

"Sir, yes sir!"

"Good" With that Commander Richards walked off towards his office. Once there he activated his terminal to contact USM H.Q..

_IMPORTANT - SITUATION REPORT - CODE 16-2_

_From: Vadina Colonial Marine Command, Colony Twelve - Commander J. Richards_

_To: USM Special Projects, USM Headquarters - Director T. Cole._

_Director Cole, a Xenomorph hive has been located near Colony Twelve here on Vidina. As ordered I report to you. We lost contact with one of our survey teams four days ago. I believe either stumbled onto an already existing hive inside the local cave networks or they discovered eggs left over from a previous now abandoned/dead hive. Either way Xenomorphs are now loose on Vadina, I recommend emidiate action be taken place to isolate the hive, extract the creatures and any remaining eggs for study or disposal, I don't care which, that's your department._

_I lost five good marines to these monsters, but they managed to get a good look at the creatures before they were taken away as hosts, recordings have been siezed and await your review. From the looks of it they were taken down by four drones, they managed to kill one, possibly two I'm not sure._

_I await your response._

_Regards_

_Commander J. Richards_

_Vidina Colonial Marines_

_End Transmission..._


	5. Drone

_Two weeks after Xenomorph attack._

_Location: Five miles outside Colony Twelve._

A single Xenomorph drone was squatting low in the recently developed undergrowth that had sprung up around the swamp-land surrounding the eastern perimeter of the colony. It had found the perfect hiding place to hunt for new hosts. For the last two weeks drones had discovered small groups of hosts patrolling the perimeter of the human settlement. Usually the hosts were in pairs of two or four. But it mattered not, for the drones outnumbered the hosts four-to-one. They also had the advantages of greater strength, agility and a natural stalking instinct that had evolved far beyond that of even the Hunters.

So far sixteen new hosts had been acquired within these last two weeks. The hive was strong and was gaining further strength with each new host acquired from each hunt, but more were needed. The hive was under threat, all the Xenomorphs could sense it. Something was coming and it would be here soon.

The drone lifted its head from it's crouched position, it could feel the presence of hosts nearby. Wait...something didn't feel right, it could feel four life signs but there were five being walking towards it. It could feel the movements but it couldn't feel any life coming from the fith being. It mattered not, it was a drone not a puzzle solver it was the queen who found solutions to such problems. It had but one single minded mission, incapacitate anything that moves and bring it back to the hive, living or dead.

It waited for the opportune moment of attack, communicating telepathically with the queen and the drones out hunting with it they formed a plan of attack. Five other drones were out with it, they circled the hosts that were walking towards their sibling, surrounding them, insuring no-one would escape the leathal force that was the hive. Then the queen commanded them to attack.

_Colonial Marines Beta Squad:_

Sergeant Jason Fargis wasn't a happy camper, out hunting these xeno-whatsits-bugs or whatever. But that wasn't what was bothering him, what was bothering him was the new member of his squad. What the hell was the USM thinking bringing the synthetics back from the dead? They'd been out of commission, hunted across all known space for the simple fact that they exist, refusing to be recalled and 'decommissioned' for well over thirty years or more. But two years ago, thanks to some "humanitarian" bill passed by congress, synthetics now have the right to live and work along-side humans for 'a better future'.

Bastard politicians don't know what's what. And now some genius in USM H.Q. gets the idea to use synthetics for military purposes. Synthetics shouldn't be used in _ANY_ branch of the military, even if it is just to scan for Xeno-bug lifesigns. What's wrong with good old fashioned human know-how anyway? These things don't even have gut feelings that can on most occasions be the difference between life and death!

He was cut short in his musings as the synthetic raised its arm up, balling its hand into a fist calling the squad to halt. It looked at Sergeant Fargis. Using its index and middle fingers, pointing to its eyes and then directly infront of their position. He knew what it meant, he may not like the synthetic but he just told himself '_it's just a tool. We use it like we do a flashlight or our weapons_' Besides the lives of his men were more important then his prejudice towards the synthetic.

Nodding to his second in command, giving the silent order to approach weapons raised and ready for anything. Then it happened, six drones sprang fourth from their hiding places.

'_shit_' He knew there'd be more than one but he was hoping for just two or maybe three. He read the various reports on the demise of Alpha, Gamma and Delta Squads over the last two weeks. It was always either just three or four creatures. This was the largest attack the creatures had conducted, unless vital information was left out of the reports, mainly concerning the number of creatures.

Well no time for any of that cover-up bullshit. There'd be time for that later...if there is a later.

"Squad! Form up a line of defence!" With that the squad formed a circle, their backs to each other covering all directions.

'_Thank god these new synthetics are programmed in armed combat against non-human aggressors_' thought Fargis. Thinking that he looked to the synthetic and saw it pull out it's side arm. '_Jesus...I really should have made it get a bigger gun_'

Without further thought on the matter he ordered the squad to open fire on the creatures. Unfortunately these Xenomorphs had learned from the deaths of their siblings and avoided the burning hot lead that spewed fourth from the human weapons.

Fargis was tackled to the ground by one of the creatures. It clawed at his armour, trying to get to the soft flesh underneath. Letting his training take over, he raised his legs up, placed both boots flat on its chest and pushed it up with all his might. Stumbling up onto one knee he fired his weapon blowing a hole clear through it's chest.

Looking around he saw that his second in command, Corporal Sam Valentine was impaled on the end of a Xeno's tail. It had gone straight through his stomach. Not killing him, but he could tell that he'd be dead in a matter of minutes anyway, if the creature didn't finish him off sooner that is.

Taking aim again, Fargis fired at the creature blowing a good portion of its head off. Acid blood splattered all over the place. Most of it landed on Valentine, but it didn't matter, he wouldn't feel it. He was dead. Aiming his weapon at another Xeno he didn't hesitate to fire again. But the bastards were learning, they were dodging left and right faster than they could take aim. Even Private Coleburn who was firing wildly in the direction of two of the creatures wasn't getting any hits. Fuck! He needed something to distract them long enough...wait...why weren't they going for the synthetic? Sure they'd smacked it up a bit when it shot at them or if it got too close, but they were mostly ignoring it. Must be cause it's not a living creature.

Fuck it!

"Hey, Robot!"

"I prefer the term artifici-" it was cut off mid-sentence.

"I don't give a shit! Here!" He threw Valentines pulse rifle and clips at it. "We'll distract them, YOU get a good position and fire! And for god's sake kill them BEFORE they tear us some new assholes!" It nodded and Fargis looked to the creatures.

Two were now stalking Coleburn from both sides. He picked up a rock and threw it at one of them.

"Hey ugly! Come get it! RUMP STAKE!!" He spun around and shook his ass at the creature, taunting it with his rear end. '_Guess shaking your ass is a universal method of pissing everyone off_' he thought. It cautiously walked towards him, something didn't feel right to it, it could sense a trap...but it didn't care, only the hunt mattered and now its bloodlust had to be quenched. It launched itself at Fargis who stood his ground. He was placing a lot of faith in the robot and if it failed he'd haunt its ass till the end of time! But thankfully for the marine the synthetic pulled through.

As the creatures got within a foot of Fargis it was gunned down. The sergeant looked at the smoking barrel of the pulse rifle and then at its owner, the synthetic. Smiling, Fargis have it a thumbs up, then felt blood splatter all over his face, armour and helmet. He looked over and saw Coleburn, facing him three feet away, with a Xeno's tail through his chest, blood pouring out around the wound. The tail pulled back slowly and Coleburn slumped down to the ground. He looked at the creature that had killed Coleburn, then looked behind it and saw another dead marine and two dead Xeno's laying close to him. One Xenomorph left...and two of them, one human the other synthetic. Time to see if humans and synthetics can live and fight together for a better future.

"Come on mother-fucker!! Bring it!!" He and the synthetic raised their pulse rifles and fired. What happened next was a blur, the Xeno leap into the air landed behind Fargis and used its tail to knock his feet from under him. Pissed at the synthetic for killing its siblings it launched itself at it. Just as the synthetic leveled its pulse rifle to fire off more shots the Xeno lowered down into all fours as low as it could, flicking it's tail forward and impaled it into the synthetics head, the sharp bladed end of the tail exiting on the other side.

Fargis, slightly dazed from his fall looked up and the blood drained from his face, the synthetic was on its knees twitching every now and then from what little synaptic activity remained in the gaping hole that was its head. But that wasn't what frightened him, towering over the marine standing at an impressive 8ft on its hindlegs was the remaining Xenomorph, looking just as ugly as ever. Raising his pulse rifle Fargist tried to get a shot off but the creature whipped around, slamming its tail on his chest, shattering the pulse rifle and a few ribs, it bent over picked him up by the armour and flung him over its shoulder. Then without missing a beat it launched itself at a swift pace towards the hive. That was the last thing Sergeant Fargis saw as he passed out.

_The Hive - Sometime Later_

Fargis awoke, feeling weak and disoriented. He took a few seconds to gather his bearings until he finally looked around his surroundings. A sudden feeling of terror came over him as he saw he was "glued" for lack of a better word to the wall of some kind of organic structure. Possibly the 'Hive' that he read about in the report detailing the Xenomorphs and their ways. Taking a look around he tried to find a way out of this predicament before one of those facehug...oh no...how long had he been out? He looked at his wrist and saw his watch. Shit! He'd been out for almost twenty-four hours! He frantically looked around, then saw something on the floor...shit...

On the floor not five feet infront of him was an open Xenomorph egg and a dead facehugger laying right next to it. Hoping it belonged to some other poor sap who'd been strung up he looked around. Nope...he was alone on the wall...which was strange. Over twenty people had been claimed by these things, some if not all of them must have been taken as hosts. Then that means...that facehugger was his, and that meant...oh God! How long did it say it took one of these things to gesta-Argghhh!!! Shit!!

Extreme nauseating pain shot through Fargis' chest. He knew what this meant, in a few seconds he would be dead and the birth of one of those bastards would be the end result of his life. He just hopes someone will end up blowing these fuckers awa-Arrrghhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

And with that Sergeant Jason Fargis' chest burst open spraying blood everywhere, killing him instantly. The young drone looked around taking in its surroundings. It was home, and its mother was calling to it. Without wasting any time it sprang fourth from its fleshy prison and skuttled across the floor towards its queen disappearing from view and leaving the lifeless corpse of Jason Fargis hanging on the wall.

_Elsewhere..._

Mike Jenson shot upright in his bed, drenched in sweat and reeling over the events from the...'dream'? It seemed so real. Ever since coming to this planet the dreams have been getting worse and worse. But what do they mean, and who the hell was Fargis? Oh well it's just a dream...or was it?


	6. Plans In Motion

_Date: September 10th - Four days after Beta Squad's disappearance_

_Location: Vidina - Colony Twelve - Marine Command._

Director Cole stood staring out of the Marine Commander's office window, he couldn't help but feel the slightest bit disgusted at the whole situation. It was a living cliche. The deadliest creature alive, wanted for study by every scientific department in USM Secret Projects Devision, from administration to bio-chemical analysis - discovered in the furthest, most backwater colony in known space. But he had to smile, he'd almost given up hope of ever getting the chance to study a Xenomorph himself, what with that psycho bitch Ellen Ripley coming back from the dead to kill off the species...again. And then somehow managing to intercept the eggs being transported to Nemsi and destroying them. God he hated that woman!

But there was no way she'd get these babies. He'd ordered the USM Battleship 'Agamemnon' to leave it's homebase as soon as it had picked up the three-hundred marines he'd need to storm the hive, kill the drones, capture the queen and her eggs. Off course he expected heavy loses but he only cared for results not expenses. If he had to sacrifce Colonies Eight, Ten and Twelve for his plan to succeed then so be it. It's not like anyone important was living in any of them, they were all expendable in his eyes. His thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of the twelve Marine Commanders.

'_Ah so the pawns have arrived._' He chuckled to himself, these fools, they were expendable too. He knew letting three whole colonies die wouldn't sit right with them, so he'd have to make sure they were all in a position where the Xenomorphs could take care of them for him. Waiting for them to take their seats, he turned to face them.

"Good morning gentlemen. I trust you're all well?" Receiving twelve affirmative nods, he continued. "I've been reading reports on Xenomorph activities in the area and frankly I find it grossly disturbing. Twelve whole marine squads decimated within two weeks."

Commander Richards stood looking slightly uncomfortable. "Uhh...That would be thirteen squads, sir."

"What? Your report said twelve!" Director Cole didn't really care how many squads had been killed, but he had to play the part just to get these idiots to do what he needs done.

"Well sir, we lost another squad four days ago. They disappeared while out bug-hunting, sir." Cole rose an eyebrow at this.

"Bug-hunting? Are you telling me you've been sending teams out to HUNT the Xenomorphs!?" These idiots! Don't they know what they're dealing with? Sending veterans, part-timers and reserve marines after the ultimate killing machine!? No wonder these morons were put in charge of such a backwater planet.

"Yes sir, we couldn't risk the colonists lives by letting these animals run free and taking whoever they please."

"Ah so you saw it necessary to send fresh meat to them instead? How many new Xenomorphs do you suppose now exist thanks to your bumbling efforts at containment?" Truly these men were arrogant, self-righteous idiots. Exactly what the Colonial Marines stand for these days.

"Commander Richards, I believe you have something to report?"

Nodding, Richards reached into the breast pocket of his uniform and pulled out a data chip. Placing it inside a holographic viewer in the center of the table, he activated it. The hologram flickered to life showing a map of the area surrounding Colonies Eight, Ten, Eleven and Twelve. Suddenly several red dots appeared on various areas of the map.

"The red dots on this map indicate reported sightings of Xenomorphs from synthetic scouts. Since the first incident almost three weeks ago sightings have been reported from scouts patrolling the areas of Colonies Eight, Ten, Eleven and Twelve. Colony Nine as you all know was built up in the mountains for easier access to the mines, but they too have reported one or two sightings over the last fortnight."

The Marine Commander of Colony Eight stood at this point and took over. "We believe they're using an underground cave network that begins here..." He pointed to an area approximately seventeen miles to the west of Colony Eight. "and ends somewhere in the unexplored areas of the mountains. I've sent teams of Marines to search the local area for any other entrances, but so far we've found nothing."

Colony Nine Commander "I've sent survey teams along with a few squads of marines to locate anything in the mountains but so far we've found nothing. However yesterday a group of miners failed to return from mining site two, we believe they perished due to a cave-in but gut feeling tells me that the Xeno's got 'em"

Commander Richards pressed a button on the HoloViewerer showing the red dots fading to reveal newer blue dots appearing on various parts of the map.

"These blue dots indicate the last known positions of every squad we've lost so far. As you can see each incident occurs within five miles of the mountain's base. We know Xenomorphs are extremely territorial, so it's safe to assume that the hive itself is in the mountains and they simply use the underground caves to reach the colonies.

Colony One's Commander while a brilliant soldier isn't the greatest of strategist. "So we seal the entrances to these caves with some C9 and block them off from the colonies. Simple."

Cole just couldn't believe that these people have the power of life and death over all the colonies on this planet. He finds it amazing anyone's still alive.

"Idiot. You could do that, but not only would it be a waste of explosives but it would force the Xenomorphs to find an alternative route. In other words, they'd exit via the mines, climb over the mountains and slaughter everyone in Colony Nine. Not only would it be a public relations nightmare but it would practically quadruple the hive's population in a matter of days! Then the only thing that could possibly stop them from taking colonies Eight, Ten, Eleven and Twelve would be a tactical nuke dropped from high orbit, effectively destroying those colonies anyway! I don't think I need to tell you that losing five colonies in less than a week would seriously piss off all our bosses!"

"Well sir, what would you suggest we do?" Commander Richards was seriously beginning to regret calling this pompous oaf. He cares nothing for the sacrifices the colonial marines have made for the security of this world and for his little pet project. Glaring at the marine commander, Director Cole straightened his tie, strode over to the window and looked out towards the mountains in the distance.

"Simple, the USM Battleship Agamemnon is due to arrive here with a complement of three-hundred USM Marines within one week. It will also be carrying fifty USM Synthetic Soldiers, created specifically for combat against Xenomorphs. Feel privileged for they are the ONLY ones in existence and they cost more than this entire planet is worth. The Synthetics will be our main attack force, they will enter the hive and take care of any and all Xenomorphs that are in our way." He walked over to the HoloViewer replacing the crystal Richards had placed in it with one of his own. The image shown was of a synthetic in full battle regalia. It looked like it was ready to march into hell itself from the amount of armour and weapons it had on its person.

"Each synthetic is armed with one USM Full-Auto Disrupter Rifle. These are top of the line, developed by myself and my team specifically for use against Xenomorphs. One shot should prove enough to incapacitate, but not kill."

"Sir, they only incapacitate? I doubt the Xeno's would be so inclined to reciprocate against anyone attacking their hive."

"True, but I want to capture as many of the creatures as possible for study. I'd rather not have to breed them. As you can imagine hosts aren't easy to come by."

Each of the commanders gave a disgusted, outraged look towards Cole for having such little regard for the lives lost to these monsters. Either not noticing or not caring, Cole continued.

"The three-hundred USM Marines and the Colonial Marines will work together as the second wave in the attack. Once the synthetics have cleared a path and captured a few specimens the marines will enter and kill every living thing in the hive, even hosts. Believe me, killing the host will be the most humane thing we can do in such situations."

"After we have secured the hive the second phase of the plan will begin. Our aim will be to capture the Xenomorph Queen, _ALIVE_. It won't be an easy task, that I can tell you. The queen will most likely be protected by Xenomorphs far more powerful and deadly than the drones and warriors your marines have had to deal with. We have classified these Xenomorphs as Praetorians. Some of the researchers prefer to call them Royal Guards, whichever you wish to call them it doesn't matter we'll still have to deal with them before we can take on the queen."

"Sir, do you have an estimate on the number of Xenomorphs in the hive. The synthetics may become overwhelmed by sheer numbers."

"The hive did not become active until after your arrival so I assume that the numbers may be minimal. This hive may very well hold only a handful of Xenomorphs. Plus from the amount of acid burns found in some areas its safe to assume that some of your marines managed to kill a few before they themselves were taken. So I believe the Xenomorph population to be fairly low. Lets just hope they don't attack a colony before the Agamemnon arrives or we're all fucked."

The commanders were not quite convinced by his plan, but they weren't the experts and they certainly weren't the intelligence gathering types. They'd just have to work with what they've got. Anyway, the synthetics will go in first, let them get torn appart and take a few of the Xeno's with them. They and the USM Marines can clean up the mess. At least marginally pleased with their plans the commanders left, leaving Cole to get on with his reports to USM H.Q.

Little did they know that right at that moment a lone alien ship was breaking orbit to after gathering all the information it would need to report back to its clan.

Right that's chapter 6 up. Sorry to say I'm not excellent when writing for bad guys. This chapter took me the longest to write and caused the most problems. Anyway I hope you've enjoyed this latest update, I'll get the next one up as soon as possible.


	7. Problems & Solutions

_Location: Vadina, Colony Eight - Housing Sector Twenty-Seven._

_Date: September 17th, 2413._

It's been almost two months since the dreams started, and each night they start roughly the same way but never truly the same. Colonial Marines out on patrol in some and in others teams of scientists. Never the same faces, but always the same situation. First they're surrounded by dark skinned creatures with elongated heads, then they're being torn appart or dragged away to be cocooned and impregnated by some spider-like creature. The end of the dreams are always the same, the victims die and new creatures are born. But in the last two weeks we notice differences in the dreams, I hear voices instead of the terror induced screams. Voices that speak to each other, sometimes they say the same thing over and over again, other times they say different things. But one voice is always above the others...'her' voice. She commands and they obey. Sometimes I feel like I too must obey her, like nothing else matters except following her commands.

What makes this whole situation stranger is that all the others have the dreams too and they react exactly the same to it as I do. All except Jenny that is, she feels threatened by the commanding voice. She reacts to it like it's a rival, something trying to take away something from her and I guess it's right, we're all the family we have and the voice is taking us away from her. She is the queen of our hive and we would give our lives for her.

Suzie, one of the last to be born was drawing like she normally does, she's always been the most creative amongst us and we've all posed for her at one time or another. She'd been drawing a lot lately but never lets any of us see her work which was strange since she's quite the exhibitionist. Today was like any day, I'd decided to lounge around and wait for mom to come home from one of her investors meetings when Suzie came over to me clutching her sketch pad in her hands looking as shy and fragile as always.

"Mike?" Hmm, this must be serious, she only calls me Mike when somethings up, she usually calls me Mikey. Must be the dreams getting to her, she often comes to me when they get scary...well scarier than usual.

"Wha'ts up Suzie? The dreams bothering you again?" She lowered her head and clutched the sketch pad tighter. Yup, the dreams again. Damn this planet and the dreams! She continued to stare downwards. "Come on Suzie, you can tell me." She still didn't answer, instead she handed me her sketch pad. More than a little confused I flipped through it. The first few pages were normal, drawings of us, plants from the garden, local fruit and so on. It wasn't until I got to the middle of the pad that things changed. The drawings got darker and eerier. I flipped a few pages more and froze.

There it was. One of the creatures from the dreams. Elongated head. Slim, skeletal body, bladed tail and claws. It was standing on it's hind legs over a human figure who was on the ground trying to crawl away, just like in one of the first of the dreams we all had. It was more than creepy, especially considering the level of detail gone into this one drawing. It was like a still life, as if time had frozen before her allowing her to draw this one scene perfectly, to record the last moments of this mans life. I flipped to the next page, and it was the same. Same level of detail, same creepiness but different drawing.

This time the creature was crawling on some kind of organic wall that had two figures stuck to it. One with a gaping hole in his chest and the other with one of the spider-like creatures attached to his face with its fail wrapped round his neck.

I think I understood now what was bothering her, it wasn't the dreams themselves but the memory of them imprinted onto her mind. Drawing may be her way of ridding herself of her demons, but obviously it doing much help since she'd come to me.

"Suzie? Did you see these in your dreams?" She nodded. O-kay. Thing genius, say somethin-wait a minute. I remember now, I've seen these creatures before and not just in my dreams!

"Holy shit! Grampa-Frank!" Suzie rose her head at this and looked at me with a confused expression. Obviously not what she wanted or expected to hear. I rose from my seat grabbed her hand and dragged her towards my room. I'm SO stupid, why didn't I recodnize them before!? Xenomorphs! These are Xenomorphs! Once in my room I let go of Suzie and went straight for my desk. Opening the draw I pulled out a large locked metal box. Placing my thumb on the scanner that lay on the top of the box it positively ID'd me as Michael F. Jenson, owner of said box.

I lifted the lid and pulled out a large red folder filled with papers Grandpa-Frank 'forgot' to burn when he retired from the USM. Reports, classified historical information, biological research data and photos, video and information recovered from the Auriga's black-box on the experiments they conducted before it crashed into Earth.

I pulled one of the photo's out and looked at it then at Suzie's drawing. They were indentical. Suzie came up next to me and looked at the drawing. She'd never seen these before, nobody had except me, mom and Grandpa-Frank. They shouldn't exist, infact there's enough evidence here to bring down the USM. But we'd only ever use it if they discover us. For now the files make for interesting reading on who and what we are.

"I think there are Xenomorphs on this planet." Suzie looked at me with a knowing look. She must have been thinking it too, hell we all must have been. I'd heard rumor from around the colony of whole squads of Colonial Marines going out on patrol of the wilderness and not returning. There are various conspiracy theories going around about some mutant animal escaping from a lab or some bullshit, but we know what's out there and it's a hell of a lot meaner than any mutant bunny they'd ever let loose.

_Later that night..._

I'd just finished explaining to everyone what Suzie and I had found out about the dreams and the Xenomorphs and I was surprised by the level of calm they were show-

"What the fuck do you mean there are Xenomorphs on this fucking planet!?"

Spoke too soon. James, always the one to voice his concerns. He's like the chief of security in our hive, always worried about everyone's safety...like a little mother-hen, whatever the hell that is.

"It makes sense. We are half Xenomorph, we've never had dreams like these before on any other world, but now we are. We all have the dreams, we see Colonial Marines being dragged away to be impregnated by the facehuggers, as Grandpa-Frank called em. And I'm sure you've heard around the colony about the missing Marines, supposedly K.I.A for no reason what-so-ever. Xenomorphs are here and if they are then that means the USM aren't far behind. We've been having the dreams for almost two months now and that means-" I was cut off as something on the TV that someone had left on in the background caught my eye.

Oh shit!

_"This is William Huntsdale with the Vidina News Network reporting live from the Vidina Space Dock where The USM Battleship Agamemnon has just docked for reasons unknown. I'm here speaking with Colonial Marine Commander Richards of Colony Twelve. Tell me commander why is the Agamemnon here?"_

_"The Agamemnon is carrying three-hundred USM Marines from their base on New-Cymru. Their commanders have been in touch with us to request that they use our vast unexplored wilderness and mountain ranges for training purposes. Vadina is still mostly unexplored so not only would they be getting the training they need but we will also get the extra man-power in exploring these areas."_

_"What about reports about Marines disappearing after going on patrol. So far reports say that over fifteen whole squads have died. That can't be all due to the dangers of the unexplored regions of this planet could it?"_

_"Actually Mr Huntsdale it is. We simply don't know what's out there. As you know this planet already had an atmosphere that closely resembled that of Earth but wasn't capable of sustaining so many for a long period of time so terraforming was introduced. Now there may have been indigenous life that survived the terraforming process. But the likelihood of it is extremely remote, I think this planet has a lot of surprises it's claimed a lot of lives. Explorers have through-out the ages fallen victim to the unknown, but we as a species always overcome any obstacle in our way."_

_"Thank you Commander Richard, back to you in the studio Bill."_

I grabbed the remote and switched it off. Perfect, out of the frying-pan and into the fire.

"I'd like to say that maybe the Xenomorphs and the Marines will just kill each other and not notice our being here, but this is the USM we're dealing with not the near brain dead Colonial Marines anymore. And most probably if we can sense the Xenomorphs then they can certainly sense our being here. We need to leave and soon. Obviously commercial transport is out. The USM will have complete control over it by now and they run mandatory DNA scans on everyone coming to or leaving the planet."

"We could just make for the wilderness, we all practice our survival skills. Plus we have the added bonus of strength, agility and natural survival instincts." Dana, sweet girl, excellent cook but doesn't have a strategic bone in her body.

"What about Mrs Jenson, she doesn't have our natural abilities plus they'd have her on file as being part of the Hybrid Program. It'll look really bad for her if they find her here on a planet full of Xenomorphs when she herself was used to breed a hybrid of both species." Willow, she may be a goth-chick and severely anti-social but it makes me proud when she throws in her all during times like these.

Jenny looked around at each of us, thinking in that was she does. Natural born leader, queen of the hive. "This is a dilemma, but we can't let our fear get the better of us. We need to carefully plan out not only our every move but theirs as well. We need to be ready for any situation at any moment." That's my girl!

Suzie raised her hand. She's always so shy even around us but it's what makes her so cute. Jenny noticed her and smiled. Suzie may be shy, but she's also the creative one and that doesn't stop at art and craft. She can often come up with brilliant plans that none of us could ever possibly think of.

"Yes Suzie?"

"Um...well...we have the element of surprise right? The USM don't know we're here and they only run mandatory DNA scans at the space docks and restricted areas and even when moving between colonies and in the most extreme cases when moving between sectors." She was getting at something I know it! "So leaving the planet is out. So is leaving the colony at least it will be when they get here..."

She hesitated and looked around at us. I know what she's thinking, she's about to say something that's going to sound absolutely insane but we'll eventually surcome to it when the time comes.

"Yes Suzie, what?"

"...We go into the wilderness...we find the Xenomorph hive and seek protection from them." Here she bit her lip and continued before anyone could fully digest what she'd said and comment. "As for Mrs Jenson she has those chemicals she got from Grandpa-Frank that he told us he'd helped develop for use by spies in the field to mask their DNA from detection. She can use them and get off the planet, then she can come back about a week after they leave."

To say that we in shock was an understatement. It took us about a minute to fully comprehend what she was saying. Sure mom had those vials with the chemical, so she could leave. We can't take them because no amount of the chemical could mask all those missing chunks of human DNA we were lacking. But to willingly walk into a Xenomorph hive was...was...SUICIDE!!!

Jenny furrowed her brows in thought while we just sat there not knowing what to say. But after a while Jenny did.

"Suzie...what you've proposed is...well...shocking to say the leas-" Billy our resident believer that the glass is half empty and a firm lover of voicing his opinions interrupted her.

"It's insane!! She wants us to commit suicide!!" Jenny doesn't like to be interrupted, not by anyone, not even me.

"Thank you Billy, now as I was saying. It's risky..." Willow put her hand over Billy's mouth before he could comment. "But we are half Xenomorph and I believe the dreams we're experiencing aren't really dreams per se but a summons by the hive, they're inviting us. I don't know if it's to let us join them or to just lure us in to become hosts but it's all we have. I for one don't want to be taken back to some USM lab to be disposed of, or worse be experimented on."

She looked around and saw that everyone else agreed with her on that. No one wanted to go back to being lab rats. So if we had to make a deal with the devil to keep our family...our hive safe, then so be it!

"I say we go with Suzies plan" Me and Suzie, we're best buds so I always agree with her plans. Plus hopefully it'll be a chance for us to study our Xenomorph brothers and sisters without the unfortunate luck of being stuck to a wall.

Everyone else nodded, even Billy. Mom was quiet the whole time but she nodded too, she wanted her family safe but she'd never survive in the hive, she needed to leave the planet. Plus knowing she's safe will put my mind at rest. This was going to be one freaky adventure, that's for damn sure.


	8. Wilderness & Swamplands

_Date: September 20th_

_Location: Vadina Wilderness, twenty-seven miles outside Colony Eight._

As decided, we'd left Colony Eight two days ago before the USM Marines could arrive to contain the colony. We saw mom off the night of our emergency meeting. Thankfully we didn't need to come up an excuse for her immediate departure, she was called to an investors meeting that night just as we were all packing. Thankfully this particular company (one of many she's invested into) holds a lot of sway over the military seeing as it's their primrary supplier of military hardware and technology, so not even a general would hold up one of their investors, unless he was looking for early retirement that is. Now since mom is the granddaughter of a general and was in the USM Marines herself no one questions her choice of investments, which offers her the perfect coverstory as the primrary reason she chose that company was so she could keep up to date on the USM's current scanning technology and find any and all ways to block it or trick it.

Anyway, now the ten of us are setting up camp close to the mountains, we hope to come across an entrance into the hive by tomorrow or the day after. Our instincts tell us that an entrance shouldn't be too far from the 'food source', in this case Colony Eight. At the very least there should be a tunnel that branches off from the main hive. So far they'd come across the leftover remains of Xenomorph hunts. Burn marks, dried human blood and the occasional piece of torn up kit.

We were sitting around the portable heat generator that Danny'd invented. He was quite the techno-junkie and proud of it. He'd invented this heater that would heat the area around us, but mask itself as a natural heat source from any scanning technology (thanks to some inside info from mom). Thanks also to the fact that unlike most portable heaters this one wasn't designed to generate light, so we wouldn't have to worry about giving our position away.

Currently we were in between autumn and winter. It was getting colder but it wouldn't officially be winter for another three months. One year on this planet was fifteen months long, and right now it was the month between August and September. It was cold but it wasn't anywhere near freezing yet. We'd be alright for a full two months out in the wild if we never found the hive, but food was short and the plant life on this planet is still adapting to the atmospheric changes, we have no ideas what fruits or plants are safe to eat, that is if we ate plants.

Over the years we'd discovered our bodies had begun to reject any fruits or vegetables we'd eat. It wasn't a problem at first but when we each hit sixteen we became completely carnivorous. Meat was all we could eat. Grandpa-Frank concluded that the Xenomorph dietary habits and the human habits had been clashing together for years and the superior Xenomorph DNA had won out in the end.

Back to the present, I was setting up the cooking tri-pod we'd 'borrowed' from the colonial marine's back on Praxis-Minor. They were busy killing rebels so didn't notice us raiding their equipment. It was desperate times and it called for desperate measures. Of course the marines blamed the rebels. It had come in handy on occasion, especially when we go on our monthly survival excersises that Malcolm (or Mal as he likes to be called) makes sure we complete. Now I was setting this up so Dana could cook a few of the stakes we'd brought with us, we should be rationing our food but Mal tells us that pleanty of wild animals were brought along to colonize the wilderness of Vidina once the terraforming was complete, so there'd be plenty of meat available, we'd just need to hunt it and kill it.

Sure, Dana's a girl and she cooks. Think all you will about sexism and equal right but we don't make her do it. She seems to have a natural talent for cooking and she enjoys it. Usually if we're ever in 'her' kitchen when she's cooking she'd go ballistic and chase us out with a rolling pin or something. I remember our fearless survivalist expert Malcolm daring to brave her temple for a taste of her wonderful chocolate flavoured meatshake (Like a milkshake but made of liquidized meat). It resulted in a screaming Mal being chased out of the kitchen by a knife wielding Dana who I SWEAR was intent on making him into our evening meal.

And again I'm drifting off into the past. I'd set up the tripod and Dana was well on her way to cooking heaven. Sure the smell of meat might attract animals, maybe even Xenomorphs but it couldn't be helped for some of our human dietary needs still existed, like eating cooked food. Besides we've all dealt with wild animals before, we're all far superior to any of them...well expect the Xenomorphs of course. We'd just have to hope they didn't perceive us as a threat, or as hosts.

_The Next Day - Noon_

We'd all awoken at dawn to continue our trek through the Vidina wilderness and so far we'd spent hours hiking along the grasslands. From our holomap that showed the explored sectors of wilderness we were currently walking through we'd soon come across the miles of swampland that led all the way to Colony Twelve where most of the Xenomorph activity had occurred, according to the number of missing marines that Colony Twelve had reported. We'd have a greater chance of running into Xenomorphs here than anywhere else, the swampland seemed to be ideal for their stalking needs. It provided natural cover and left humans virtually exposed to attack from not only the extremely high undergrowth and the various trees but from under the swamp water also. They could just pull the marines under.

James and Mal were worried about the upcoming trek through the swampland. Both for similar but still rather different reasons. Mal was worried about the various insects that were released into the swampland, specifically the mosquito's. Sucking on acid blood isn't good it could attract unwanted attention. The insects had been released along with alligators and various species of fish to emulate the old Louisiana swamplands of Earth that made it their home.

James was worried about running into marine patrols, they'd obviously attempt to arrest them for violating USM rules and regulations regarding whatever bullshit situation they'd made up to get the marines onto this planet. He was kind of hoping we'd run into Xenomorphs before we'd have to deal with marines, but so far the chances of that are remote, but we'll just cross that bridge when we get to it.

For now I was enjoying the local scenery, how humans could prefer cold, grey colonies to the beauty and splendor of nature was beyond me, even if this planet was partially terraformed.

We'd continued onward for the rest of the day, stopping every now and then to rest. Eventually we reached the base of a steep hill by sunset that the holomap said was the start of the swamplands when you climbed over to the other side and nothing but swamplands for over thirty miles until you reached the eastern wall of Colony Twelve. We climbed the hill with little difficulty. Sometimes being half Xenomorph paid off.

We went on until we reached the top and beheld a sight that I will forever remember til the day I die. It was beautiful. The sky was ablaze in hues of red, pink and orange while the sun continued to sink down the horizon, it's fading light reflecting off the swamp water. I was mazmarised, as were the others. We'd heard about the swamplands of old Earth and the few that had been recreated artificially on a few worlds, but this was pure nature. This wasn't a recreation this was a blending of the old world's swampland that survived the terraforming process and Earth's swamplands. Perfectly balanced to create a new ecosystem of native and alien plant and animal life.

We stood in awe for another few minutes before Mal ushered us all back down the hill. It wasn't a good idea to begin crossing swampland now that it was getting dark, so we'd set up camp and start off again bright and early tomorrow. I decided to take first watch tonight, not really out of any sense of duty but I just wanted to watch the sun complete it's journey across the swamp. It was a perfect way to end a long and tiring day.

Yes I know I'm sorry it's so short and I'm doubly sorry there's no action but I just wanted a nice gentle chapter, I was in the mood for one. Anyway hope you enjoy. I promise there'll be action in the next chapter.


	9. The Mountain Path

_The Next Morning_

I awoke to the feeling of someone's boot poking me in the ribs. I cracked open my eyes and saw it was James, with Mal standing behind him looking around, his eyes searching for dangers as usual.

"What is it?" My voice was still groggy from sleep. I stood and looked for anything out of place that could have merited these two disturbing my sleep at..WHAT!?...THREE AM!? My watch only ended two hours ago! Oh this better be good!

"I've been placing thermal-motion sensors every two-kliks from our current position in every direction while the camp was being set up. One of the sensors went off thirty minutes ago, I thought it may have just been some of the local wildlife, but just now another sensor two-kliks from the previous went off. I'd like to think it's just an animal accidentally setting them off but I'd rather be safer than sorry. We have to move and I mean now, we're too open out here, easy targets for marines equipped with nightvision. We need to get packed up and moving within the next ten minutes."

I understood all too well. I was as much a survivalist as Mal was, we all were. The Xenomorph within us all made us that way and we incorporated many human survival techniques Grandpa-Frank had taught us. I went about packing up the camp, waking anyone nearby while Mal and James took up defensive positions just in case of an attack. With everyone awake and the camp packed up, we set off into the swampland, thankfully we all had excellent nightvision, how I don't know, human eyesight isn't that sophisticated and Xenomorphs didn't have eyes. Willow the goth-chick was quite the scientists, specialising in biology, specifically ours. She believes that our bodies are compensating for the lack of one or two Xenomorph sensing organs we don't have or have yet to develop, by enhancing our eyesight, hearing and sense of smell.

We carefully trudged through the swamp, making sure not to disturb too much of the undergrowth or other various plantlife as to not give away we'd been there. James and Mal were laying down more sensor devices that I'm sure they had Danny make for them. Those three were quite the team when it came down to it. I'd have to ask Danny how many he had, but knowing him he probably had more than enough to make it all the way to Colony One and back, which was on the other side of the continent. Obviously the other two were worried about what was behind us and I could honestly say, so was I.

_Sometime Later..._

We'd been walking through this swampland for hours now and it was vastly obvious that we were in Xenomorph territory, the local animal life was significantly lesser here than anywhere else, a sign that they'd either been taken as food or hosts or simply left from the threat the Xenomorph's posed to them. I knew we'd run into some marines sooner or later, it was only a matter of time. I'd asked Danny to try and intercept their radio-chatter with his equipment, but so far no success. They'd encrypted their channels well but they'd never met Danny Moore, techno genius! He'd eventually crack their codes and then we'd stand a better chance of evading them by listening in on their com-channels.

It was another five minutes before Danny started handing out com-earpieces to Mal, James and myself. He'd also have one of course just in case they changed encryption codes or frequencies. He'd done it, he'd cracked into their com-channel and we could hear everything.

_"Uniform-Sierra-Mike Zero-Two, this is Command. Come in."_

_"Command this is Uniform-Sierra-Mike Zero-Two. Over"_

_"Zero-Two, please report status."_

_"Status is green. We located some home made thermal-motion sensor positioned every two-kliks past Area Seven that continued through Areas Eight, Ten and Eleven. Request permission to investigate. Over"_

_There was a pause in the reply, obviously com-operators don't have the authority to issue orders without the say so of the higher ups._

_"Zero-Two that's a negative, you are to return to base as scheduled. Over."_

_"Roger that command. Zero-Two over and out."_

"Dammit!" Danny stomped his foot in the swampwater. "I thought I'd made those things virtually undetectable!" Here we go, he'll pout for about twenty minutes now and come up with some brilliant idea on how to improve the sensors stealth capabilities. But at least they weren't going to come after us, for a while at least. We picked up our pace wanting to get as much distance between us and this 'Zero-Two' squad. James and Mal had placed a few 'dummy' sensors going along a different path from our own to throw them off our scent. It should buy us a few hours. Now we only have to worry about Xenomorphs.

_Night - Temporary Camp Site_

We'd decided to camp on a small turf of land that whilst above water level was still concealed by the undergrowth giving us a pleasant spot to rest and hide in while we continued to ponder our next plan of action. James had placed a few more of the sensor devices two-kliks away from the camp-site in all directions, our first line of defence. Mal had set natural traps that the marines wouldn't notice until it was too late, our second line of defence as we packed up and left if ever we needed to leave in a hurry.

James had taken first watch, patrolling the area while the rest of us ate, rested or checked our supplies. We still had enough food for a few days but we'd need to find the hive soon, I don't like these marines and I especially don't like what they stand for. Mal, Jenny and I were sitting around the holomap discussing possible routes to find the hive entrance. Mal was slightly more interested in leaving fake trails for the marines to follow, but he did put in his input about the hive, he was an expert on survival and with that came an understanding of animal and Xenomorph behaviour.

"I say we head for the uncharted territories, these marines patrols are obviously after the same thing we are, the location of the hive entrance and since they haven't found it in the mapped areas, we head out to these territories. Xenomorphs won't keep the main hive too close to a human settlement but they will have some form off caves or tunnels branching off from it to here."

"Are you sure Mal? I don't want to risk running into more patrols or going on a wild goose chase that may get us lost, or worse, killed." Jenny has her concerns and I don't blame her. Mal is the adventurous type and loves exploring areas no one else has ever been. He will sometimes takes unnecessary risks, usually only with his own life on the line, but this time we're all on the line and we can't take those kinds of risks.

Willow stepped in at this point, she'd overheard our conversation, she was the expert on us, the XenoSapiens and the Xenomorphs, no matter how much Mal would say otherwise.

"I've been reviewing reports on the 'missing' marines, survey teams and miners-" hold up, what?

"Wait! Did you say miners? There aren't any mines around here." I was fairly sure Colonies Eight, Ten and Twelve hadn't opened any mines since they were first constructed, they were primraraly for civilian housing.

"That's true, but Colony Nine does. They've reported at least three missing mining teams over the last week. Colony Nine is in the mountains that surround colonies Eight, Ten, Eleven and Twelve. These missing persons reports and warning notices issued by the Colonial Marines to stay away from 'high risk accident areas' tell me that most of the Xenomorph activity has been occurring near the mountains with two or three incidents happening further out. I think we'd have a better chance of finding the hive if we head for the mountains."

At the point she'd walked over to the Holomap and zoomed in on an area thirty miles from our current position and about ten miles from Colony Twelve.

"If we can get to this point we can follow the mountain trail for a further seven miles, climb up this steep incline on the mountain side. From then on we won't have to worry about marine patrols or wild animals, this mountain is littered with interconnecting caves that are most probably the main entrance into the hive that's deeper within the mountain. Geological survey teams have theorised that this mountain is hollow at it's core making it perfect for a Xenomorph hive."

While she was in the middle of her explanation James had come back from his patrol. He'd listened intently to her plan and was most probably forming a list of problems that needed to be addressed.

"You do realize that there's a marine checkpoint less than a mile from where you say we begin this mountain trek. If we were dealing with colonials we'd be alright, but it's probably swarming with USM by now. They're not going to make the same mistakes that we can expect to exploit with the colonials, it's a big risk. Secondly we don't have any mountain gear or previsions to last us long enough. But, I do agree that the mountains are our best chance of finding the hive and I agree that the only way is past this checkpoint. I don't like it, but it's our only logical choice."

I'll say one thing about James, he can be a bastard at the worst of times but he's honest, loyal and knows a good plan or even the only plan when he sees it.

"Mal we're gonna need food, these stakes aren't going to last us long. Take Dana and Billy to hunt some food, Dana can tell you if it's edible and if it'll be enough for all of us. Mike, you Danny and Suzie get working to see if you can find or make anything that'll work as mountain gear, I've heard that the ivy growing in the trees of these swamps is as strong as industrial rope, collect as much as you can and see if we can use it. Willow, Jenny I want you two to take Mona and see if you can find anything we can use as weapons. I didn't have time to scavenge anything more than a few knives and two pistols back in the colony. Mona will tell you if what you find is of any use, hand off anything you find to Danny, he and I have made quite a few weapons out of nature's finest in the past so he'll know what to do." With that he set off to continue his patrol of the area.

_Five Hours Later_

Danny, Suzie and I had made fast work of the ivy. It was indeed strong and highly durable, we'd decided to use it as a safety rope, tying it around our waists to connect us together when he went to climb, it would prove invaluable if any of us slipped. We'd also helped with Jenny, Willow and Mona's task of making weapons, they'd found quite a few long thin stones that we could sharpen into bladed points. After almost an hour all six of us had managed to create three daggers and four spears.

Danny had found two small circular stones that he'd managed to sharpen with a device he'd invented years ago when he Mal and James made bladed weapons together. He'd cut a semi circle out of the centre of each stone and rounded out the blunt end of each into a handle that he'd padded with leaves and some leather binding tape. The weapons themselves now looked like crescent moon shaped blades, he gave each to Mona and James since they were the more experienced combatants of the group.

Mal, Dana and Bill returned an hour ago with a fair amount of hunted animals. Some were no bigger than chicks while other were the size of small dogs. Right now they were busy skinning and preserving them for the long journey ahead. We'd all learned a long time ago not to be squeamish about our food or blood, it helped that we're hunters by nature in both Human and Xenomorph form, but Grandpa-Frank and mom had taught us how to live off the land so nothing really bothers us now. They'd cut most of the larger animals into pieces for quick, easy cooking. We needed to keep on the move during the day and the faster we ate the more ground we'd cover by sunset. We had enough water to last us another week or so if we rationed it wisely, but Mal's sure we'll come by a fresh water source by the time we reach the mountains.

James had come back to eat and get some much needed sleep, Mona had left shortly after to patrol the area. Those two were the soldiers in our group, they'd practically worshipped Grandpa-Frank for his background as a soldier. Sure he was USM but he was our childhood protector, our hero.

Now that we'd all gotten some food, sleep and checked for updates on the marine com-channels, we were ready to set off again, it would be another two days before we reached the checkpoint area, but we'd be ready for anything by then.

_Marine Command - Colony Eight: Meeting Room C1._

Commander Tom Gardener of the USM Marines was being briefed by Squad Zero-Two on the thermo-motion sensors they'd discovered. He was impressed by the technology, they were home made and rivalled that of the USM's own field technology.

"So do we know who made these?" Oh, he'd like to get his hands on the inventor all right and offer him a job, after he was interrogated to discover why he was outside the colony without marine supervision or authorisation.

"We don't know sir, no finger prints have been found on any of the devices, not even a skin particle for DNA identification. We didn't even spot them at first, we kind of stumbled onto them when Private Barnes tripped over a tree root and knocked the sensor from its hiding spot. We'd sweeped everything in front of us from then on and discovered these other four at two-klik intervals. We'd hoped that we'd be allowed to go out and scout around to see if we could find who's planting them, sir."

The commander was still examining the device in his hands, but put it down and concentrated on the squad leader, Corporal Mendez.

"No corporal, by now who ever planted these things is long gone. What they're doing out there is what I would like to know, but it's no longer your concern. From your report and the locations you found the sensors I assume whoever this person or people are they're heading in the general direction of Colony Twelve, I've already alerted my counterpart there and he has six squads patrolling the area as we speak, they'll be picked up and shipped back here for questioning, that is if the Xeno's don't get them first. Dismissed!" The marines stood, saluted their commander and filed out in a two-by-two formation with their squad leader marching ahead of them.

The commander began examining the sensor in front of him again, it was impressive work and if what the squad leader's report said was true then this was no boyscout's outing they were dealing with, someone knew how to hide this from professionally trained marines, HIS marines! There were few who could do that, unless they themselves were trained soldiers. That thought sent a shiver down his spine. The USM wasn't the only major power in space and they certainly weren't as dominant a force as they'd like others to believe. The Eastern Oriental Coalition, who were a collection of the old oriental nations of Earth; China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam, had banded together to form one super-nation that controlled seventeen star systems and were considered a serious pain in the ass by the USM. Mostly on the issue of Earth. Earth had once been neutral ground for all parties, but since the Auriga incident (_which the USM is constantly blamed for_) everyone wanted to scavenge what little remained of the homeworld and that had lead to more than a few skirmishes between the USM and The EOC. And he didn't even want to think about the USS (_The United Soviet Systems_). It would seem one hundred years ago the Russian communist party had gained control over six worlds in three systems and had declared independence from the now fallen democratic Russian party. In the last century they'd grown in political, economic and military power, they too like the EOC had a grudge against the USM, mainly due to the part the dominant founding nation of the USM, The United States of America had played in the downfall of the old Soviet Union back in the late twentieth century.

Anyone of those two could have sent agents here to investigate what a battleship was doing in orbit around a backwater colony planet, but he was most likely only being paranoid. It was probably some kid playing army, but this tech in his hands said otherwise. Something was going down and he just knew he was going to have a bitch load of paperwork to write up about it after the shit hits the fan.

_Two Days Later, Nightfall - One Mile from Marine Checkpoint._

It had been a hard two days for us, a few scrapes here and there but nothing too serious. We'd finally reached our destination leaving us to deal with the USM Marines that now patrolled the area around the checkpoint. James and Mona were as always on high alert, just waiting for the chance to prove themselves in battle. Thankfully neither one of them was stupid enough to just jump out and endanger the rest of us for the glory of battle, oh no, we're all naturally patient by nature, we'll wait for them to come to us if need be. Our patient behaviour had at first worried mom and Grandpa-Frank, they thought something might have been wrong, but apparently it's a natural trait that we'd inherited from the Xenomorph's.

We were now moving slowly through the wilting remains of the swamplands. This area had been artificially developed to be flatlands for ground vehicles to easily move across towards the mountain trail. We had to be careful, cover was becoming scarce. We'd eventually have to run across open flatland to reach the trail that was a mile from the checkpoint, it was risky but it was too late to turn back now, we'd come too far and returning to any of the colonies was out of the question.

It was time. James signalled for the first pair to run, all ten of us running at once would have been a bad idea, so we'd go in pairs of two, Billy and Mona were the first. They ran out across the open landscape towards some rocks about fifty yards out. Next were Dana and Mal, then Danny and Suzie, Willow and James and finally Jenny and myself.

We both ran out towards the rocks but just as we'd gotten thirty yards out a whistle blew. The next thing I know there are search lights fixed on our position and about twenty five marines surrounding us both, weapons raised and ready to fire. I placed myself between Jenny and marines, although it was a pointless effort, we were surrounded from all sides but an instinctual need to protect the queen came over me, I could see the others hiding behind the rocks (_thanks to my natural nightvision_) but I briefly looked into James' eyes and he understood my order to not come out after us. One of the marines stepped forward.

"I'm Corporal Kline of the United Systems Military Marine Corps. You are in violation of section twenty-three of the colonial military training act, all citizens require the USM Commander's authorisation to leave their colony while military training programs are being conducted. You will come with us willingly to Colony Twelve's detention compound where you will be processed and returned to your home colony for questioning."

Shit! He was one of the by-the-book types. No chance of bribing him. Oh well, if they don't take any blood or tissue samples then we might be able to talk our way out of this. I was about to respond when I heard this slight hissing sound coming from behind me. I looked back at Jenny and saw she'd heard it to. Together we looked towards the declining undergrowth we'd left behind to cross this flatland and our enhanced vision could see what the marines couldn't. Xenomorphs. There were at least fifteen that I could see. I looked back at the corporal, he'd obviously not heard their hissing, he was looking at us both with confusion. The shit was going to hit the fan I wasn't about to let some marines get us killed. The Xenomorphs hissed again and I knew that now would be a good time to drop to the ground. I grabbed Jenny pulled her down to the ground as fast as I could.

What happened next I could only explain as a massacre. All fifteen Xenomorph's pounced and landed with pin-point accuracy on a marine, either killing them or using their tail blades to paralyse them with neurotoxin. Fifteen down, ten to go.

_Checkpoint Zulu-Twelve-One - Corporal G. Kline_

Corporal Kline had both suspects contained and was ready to take them to the detention centre. He was about to order one of his men to bind them in some handcuffs when he noticed the man looking behind him towards the woman. Then they both looked back towards the undergrowth they'd come from. If they were thinking of making a run for it then they must be stupid. Again he was about to order for the cuffs when they both looked at him, the looks on their faces told him something was wrong. Then the man pulled the woman down to the ground. Shit! Something must have been following them!

He turned to his second in command, hoping he'd take the hint and go investigate, that's when he heard his men screaming in both terror and agony. He spun around and the sight before him literally made him piss his pants. Xenomorphs, at least two dozen or more, they were attacking his men. One had it's tail blade stuck into the spine of Private Jones, he wasn't dead, he could still see his eyes moving. Must be that neurotoxin he'd read about in the report. Others were fully impaled on tails while a few had large gaping holes in the sides of their heads. The Corporal wasted no time, he hoisted his weapon up and opened fire on the first thing that moved. Unfortunately it was Private Burrows, he'd been holding his own against a Xenomorph who'd recently discarded the twitching immobilised body of Private Duncan. Corporal Kline continued to fire, killing Private Burrows and the Xenomorph he'd been tackling.

He couldn't help it, he was terrified. This was his first real combat situation. He was meant to be an officer, but he wouldn't pass the grade if he didn't spend at least a year training and going into live fire situations with real marines. He was into his second month of training and someone had put him in charge of this checkpoint in a Xeno Hot-Zone. That was a very bad mistake. He continued firing his weapon, only occasionally hitting something that was alive, an even then it was mostly his own marines.

A Xenomorph tackled Kline to the ground and impaled him with its tail. His grip on his M60-Z Pulse Rifle slacked and his body stiffened as the neurotoxin went to work immobilising him. The toxin soon worked it's way into his brain and he passed out.

_Checkpoint - Mike & Jenny_

The Xenomorphs had made quick work of the marines, with the help of Corporal Kline's terror induced wildfire. Once all the marines had been subdued the ten remaining Xenomorphs began dragging away the bodies, some as hosts and others as food. One Xenomorph stood in the centre of the carnage looking down at us, it then turned its head and looked at James, Mal and the others, it didn't attack. Looking back at Jenny and I it inclined its head towards us and then moved it to point towards the undergrowth that the other Xenomorphs had disapeared into. Was it telling us to follow it's brethren? I looked towards Jenny and she seemed a little spaced out. I shook her shoulder to snap her out of it but she just cocked her head to the side slightly. I shook her again and she snapped her head towards me.

"We should follow them, I don't think they mean us any harm." I looked slightly skeptical. "If they did we'd already be dead." She had a point. I looked towards the others and waved my hand in a 'follow us' gesture. With that Jenny and I got up and followed our new Xenomorph friend into the undergrowth.

* * *

**Authors Comments**

Sorry if the action's a little bland but this chapter has proven to be rather...odd in a writing sense. It's the longest I've written so far and I just wanted to get it finished. I did promise action in this chapter but I didn't say how much.


	10. The Hive

We'd been following our Xenomorph guide now for almost four hours, I could tell he was intentionally going slower than he usually would have to allow us to keep up with him, and he was right to do so seeing as we didn't have his natural grace. Sure we were a lot more graceful than normal humans but we weren't anywhere near a true Xenomorphs level of coordination.

About twenty minutes into our journey we'd come across the entrance into the hive, or so we thought. It turned out Willow's 'hollow mountain' theory was right. We were in fact in an underground cave or tunnel, I couldn't really tell since the walls were covered in secreted resin with various human remains sticking out of them. It was kind of creepy at first, but after a while it started to feel...cosy. It may sound strange but I guess the Xenomorph half in me just felt at home here.

We'd been walking for miles and occasionally meeting a drone or two going about its 'duties'. We'd now come up to another drone that was gluing some eggs down with resin in front of ten marines that had survived the attack, I couldn't really say I pitied them, they'd tried to take Jenny and myself into custody where they'd most probably discover who and what we are. That would have been a worse fate then what these sorry bastards were getting now. Yup, sucks to be them.

We'd continued onwards for a few more miles and the cave suddenly opened outwards. We were now in a rather large chamber containing an underground spring, this must be one of their primrary sources of water, which was good news for us. We stopped and began refilling our water bottles. Our guide had stopped and was watching us with his head cocked in what looked like a gesture of curiosity, however Willow had informed us years ago that Xenomorphs did this when communicating with each other. Obviously he was informing his Queen of what her '_guests_' were doing. He didn't try to stop us or get angry he simply watched us. James was giving our guide accusing glances every now and then, like he was sure it was leading us to our doom but there was little we could do now, if they did want us dead then so be it. There was no hope of stopping them with what little make-shift weapons we had on us.

Once all our bottles were full (_the ones we carried on our belts and the bigger bottles in our backpacks_) we set off again. Our guide was now joined by a larger warrior class of Xenomorph. It hissed at us and walked in front of our guide. Well it made sense, we wouldn't exactly be expected to walk unguarded when we reached the more sensitive regions of the hive, but what were those regions and how close were they.

My questions were answered when we entered the egg chamber, there were a lot of skeletal remains on the walls here and not all of them human. There were a number of large animals that seemed to have been dead for months, even years. It begged the question of how long had this hive been active and how had it not been noticed by humans earlier? We continued to walk through the egg chamber cautiously, not wanting to accidentally cause one of the eggs to '_hatch_'. But there was something odd about this chamber, there weren't nearly as many eggs as there should be, sure they could of had a major population explosion recently but there should still be some left over eggs still open that hadn't been cleared out yet. It was an enigma to be sure.

We thankfully left the egg chamber without a single one of us with a facehugger attached to our person. This made me feel slightly better about the Queen's intentions towards us, but I wasn't letting my guard down for one second. If they wanted to kill us then we were gonna do our damndest to take as many of them with us as we possibly could.

I noticed Jenny next to me pondering some of the same things I was, she was obviously worried about the safety of the others and about an all too obvious meeting she and the rest of us were going to have with this hive's Queen. Our guide and his warrior friend were rounding a corner when I heard a near deafening shriek. I suddenly felt unbearable pain coursing down my spine and I fell to my knees. I noticed the others doing the same.

I glanced around the corner and saw our guide and the warrior were also on the floor writhing around in pain. Through the agony it suddenly came to me, the Queen was hurt...no more than hurt, for this to effect the other Xenomorphs so badly it must be near fatal...my god...the Queen was _dying_! That explained why there were so few eggs. Was that why she'd summoned us? Did she think Jenny would take her place? But she can't lay eggs...surely the Queen knows this, Xenomorph Queens have in the past shown incredible near human level intelligence if not more so. She must know that a Human-Xenomorph hybrid isn't built to lay eggs, at least we weren't.

The pain was finally leaving us and we began to pick ourselves up. Our guide and the warrior too were up, they were obviously concerned for their Queen from the way they were swaying their heads from side to side as if trying to comfort her with their telepathic affection. Soon they began walking onwards towards the core of the hive and we followed.

_Forty-Five Minutes Later_

We'd finally arrived at what we believed was the Queen's chamber and what greeted us was more of a shock than the realization that the Queen was dying. This chamber was huge at least the same size as Colony Eight. We were obviously in the centre of the mountain now and what we were looking at was a large pyramid. It looked somewhat Egyptian in style there was something that said it was more than that and that it was older. Much older.

Standing on either side of the steps that lead up to the pyramid were two humanoid statues, but they looked anything but human. They appeared to be carved from the mountain itself and stood as two giant pillars supporting the weight of the mountain above us. They appeared to be wearing some kind of basic armour on their chests, a loincloth and some kind of mask. One was holding a spear while the other a small disk like object. They both had some kind of cannon-like weapon on their left shoulders. They could have possibly been natives of the planet long ago and been wiped out by the Xenomorphs, but if that were the case then why build a temple under a mountain? It didn't seem to be millions of years old, more like a few thousand. Why weren't there any signs of an ancient civilisation on the planets surface? There should be, for a civilisation to be able to build this under a mountain they should have first been able to build something outside of it.

My musing were interrupted when a drone behind me pushed me forwards gently. I began climbing the steps with the others and noticed that there weren't just a few Xenomorphs...oh no...there were _HUNDREDS_ if not _THOUSANDS_!They surrounded the base of the temple in a slithering mass of black bodies. If the Marines were here to raid the hive then they were going to be slaughtered and the colonies would be next. I'm glad mom had left, I don't want her to become a host to a Xenomorph, but I had no problem with everyone else in the colony becoming one.

After climbing for a good five minutes we'd finally reached the top. And it was huge. It was even bigger than the Egyptian pyramid at Giza. We continued onwards walking past the large doors and into the temple. There were more statues of the humanoids in here and heiroglyphs depicting them fighting the Xenomorphs. Odd, they'd build a temple for the Xenomorphs, did they revere them as gods or something? Well it wasn't that strange, Grandpa-Frank had told me a few years ago that quite a few researchers had gone mad, believing that Xenomorphs were gods or were the perfect biological creature that had escaped Eden to be with man. They'd had to be taken away when they started offering themselves as 'sacrifices'. From then on Cat-Scans and psychological assessments were a monthly requirement.

We went on, passing the occasionally drone or warrior and one or two dead bodies stuck to the wall. Then we passed another egg chamber, this one was worse than the last. It had only half as many eggs in it. I noticed something on the wall, stuck next to a rotting skellington that had been hanging there for years. It was a mask, like one of those that statues wore. I walked up to it and noticed it had been stuck next to this skellington as if it were a trophy. That's when I took a closer look at the skellington and what it was wearing. It was ugly whatever it was. It had four mandibles instead of a mouth and it was huge. Must have been at least eight or nine feet when alive and...wait...it was wearing...a loincloth? It was one of the humanoids that the statues represented! A closer inspection showed that it didn't have a shoulder cannon. It either didn't have one or lost it, but it did have one of the disks stuck to its belt. I decided to take it with me, if it was a weapon then it might come in handy if things went pear shaped with the Queen.

Whilst continuing on I examined the disk trying to find how it worked. Nope, not working for me. I looked behind me searching for the right person.

"Hey Danny!" He looked towards me, obviously a little worried and a little bored. He had nothing to tinker with and I had just the thing to keep his mind of anything bad that might happen. "Here, see if you can figure out if this disk still works. I got it off the dead body of a creature that looked like one of the ones from those statues we saw on the way in. It could be a weapon, a fairly high-tech one at that. See if you can find if it still works, might come in handy."

"Sure thing Mike!" He snatched the disk from my hands and went to work examining it with one of his tools. He began smiling like an idiot from the chance to study any form of alien tech and of course James was at his side within seconds at the mention that it could be a weapon.

Moving on our guide had lead us through several different chambers, one had several stone slab like beds, all currently occupied by dead humans. Ancient dead humans. They all appeared to have died from chestbusters. But they weren't tied or glued down, it almost looks like they went willingly. The next chamber was covered in more rasin and lead downwards towards the core of the temple, possibly where the Queen lived.

We continued down, now we had two warriors with us, one in front and another behind. There were obviously a lot of Xenomorphs in the temple itself from the amount of hissing and gentle _skreeing_ that we heard. And now, at long last we'd reached the Queen's chamber. I was hoping there weren't anymore surprises. I looked back at Danny, he was still working on the disk. I poked him once and told him to put it in his bag, if it was a weapon and the Queen recodnized it then that may give off the wrong message. He complied and I hurried back to the front of the group to stand next to Jenny. She smiled at me weakly, she was nervous, I could tell. But there was no turning back now. We walked into the Queens chamber and were greeted by a strange sight.

The Queen was sitting like a dog would on her hind legs. She wasn't connected to an egg sack like I'd expected. She looked at each of us, examining us. She hissed gently at our guide, he turned around and went behind Jenny and myself. He pushed us both towards the Queen.

She lowered herself down so her head was level with our own. She hissed again and this time twelve drones dropped from the walls and grabbed the others, restraining them. Jenny and I turned to look but then I heard her scream. I looked back and to my horror I saw the Queen's spiked tail piercing Jenny's shoulder. It wasn't in deep but it was enough to inject her with neurotoxin. The Queen retracted her tail and Jenny fell to the ground. I grabbed her as she fell. I heard James shouting for me to look out, but it was too late. I felt the tip of the Queens tail pierce my shoulder too and I felt burning pain filling my body.

I fell to the ground and noticed Jenny convulsing next to me, I was about to reach out for her when I too began convulsing. This wasn't right! Neurotoxin wasn't meant to have this kind of effect on you. Jenny looked towards me as her eyes rolled back into her head and she passed out. I too was about to pass out, but just before I did I noticed one of the drones push Suzie towards the Queen as she readied her tail for another victim.

* * *

**Authors Comments**

As you may have noticed a little bit of the AVP Movie inspired this chapter, but that's as much in common this story has with _THAT_ movie. It had a few good action sequences, but overall was poorly directed. Anyway, we'll be hearing more about the Predators later on, but for now I'm concentrating on the Marines and Aliens.

Also, in Alien: Ressurection that Marines on the Auriga did use energy based weapons. The reason for that was because they were in space and didn't want to blow a hole in the hull. When dealing with Xenomorphs it's best to use Pulse Rifles with standard ammunition, tried and tested by the Colonial Marines in Aliens, even if they did eventually get their bottoms kicked. Anyhoo, I hope you enjoy this latest addition to the story.


	11. Plans Change

_The Next Day._

_Colony Eight, Marine Command - Conference Hall Two_

Marine squads Zero-Two, Zero-Three, Zero-Seven and Zero-Twelve were seated infront of their marine commander. Tom Gardener was looking rather ragged and worn from his all night VidCom-meeting with Director Cole and the other USM Marine Commanders. He was just programing the final security code into the HoloViewer when one of his men spoke up.

"Sir, what is this about? I thought we were scheduled to train with squads One-Eight, One-Nine and Four-Three, Sir?" They indeed were, Director Cole had ordered all marines to train for the next three weeks on how to better comprehend Xenomorph battle tactics. But now a slightly more pressing matter has come to their attention.

"Well _Private_, schedules change and so do orders." Snapped Gardner, he then addressed the whole room. "What you are about to watch is classified Gold-Level by the USM War Council, I assume you all know what that means by now." The marines nodded and he activated the HoloViewer.

The hologram before them showed a birds eye view of Corporal Kline addressing a man and a woman that were surrounded by at least five marine squads. Corporal Mendez figured they were being shown the capture of the people who'd laid those sensors, but why show the other squads and why was the Commander so stressed? He continued watching as the man and woman dropped to the ground and around two dozen Xenomorphs launched themselves from the nearby undergrowth. The scene continued showing the commander of the squads going mad with terror and firing frantically at anything that moved, killed more of his own men than the Xeno's were! The carnage was over in less than a minute, twenty five good marines, dead or going to die giving these fuckers new life. Then the situation got confusing, none of the Xeno's attacked the man and woman, infact one of them was studying them and inclining it head towards them, the man and woman turned, signaled to someone off screen and left with the Xenomorphs...willingly.

It was more than a little odd, the fact they'd seen and known the Xenomorphs were going to attack, their survival and their willingness to return to the hive with that creature was as if they'd been...invited. That was insane, Xenomorphs were animals, worse than that they were monsters. They had no concept of peace or mercy towards members of other species, to them humans were either food or hosts.

"As you can see you will not be meeting with squads One-Eight or One-Nine today since they were at that checkpoint last night and are now dead. I've been ordered to clear up this mess since I was the one who requested the checkpoint be manned by five squads instead of the regulation standard. Squads Zero-Two, Zero-Three, Zero-Seven and Zero-Twelve you are to discover the identities of these two unknowns, it is most likely they left this colony before we took command earlier this week. That means they have something to hide, I want to know what and I want to know why. We've been given four days to discover their identities and their reason for leaving."

This raised a few eyebrows, usually they'd be given two weeks for such a task. Four days would make it practically impossible. Corporal Mendez raised his hand to ask a question.

"Sir, why only four days? USM Investigative Protoco-" Commander Gardener wasn't in the mood to have one of his subordinates remind him of protocoll or standards.

"I'm well aware of protocoll _Corporal_. But plans have changed, our strike on the hive has been moved forwards from three weeks to four days. Director Cole now believes that if we leave the hive for much longer the number of Xenomorphs will become too great for the synthetics and ourselves to handle. We need to move and move FAST! You have four days, I expect a full report by then. Dismissed!"

The four squads left the conference hall in standard two-by-two formation as was the custom in the USM Marine Corps. Commander Gardener shook his head, things had just gone from bad to shit-hitting-the-fan-worse. He knew he was in for a disciplinary hearing for the deaths of five squads when he returns to H.Q. He'll most likely get busted down to a Corporal and have to run around taking orders from some grunt half his age with less than half of his experience. Great, so much for making General by the time he's fifty. He left the conference hall hoping to meet up with the Colonial Marine Commander, maybe they could go out and have a drink together, drowning his sorrows seemed like a good idea.

_Two Days Later - Colony Eight, Housing Sector Twenty-Seven_

Corporal Mendez had exhausted all high-tech methods of identification in finding out who the two unknowns on the HoloVid were, so now he was doing it the old fashioned way with a photo of both from stills taken from the HoloVid. He hoped someone in one of the housing sectors had seen or even knew who these two were. So far he'd met three store owners in the economic sector who said the man often bought odds and ends from their industrial stores and thanks to one rather large piece of kit he'd bought he'd had to give one of them his billing address. Unfortunetly he'd only given what housing sector, not what building.

"Excuse me miss" He'd stopped a girl who was talking rather loudly into her VidPhone. "Miss, have you seen either of these two before?" He held out the photos of the man and woman. The man who the billing address named as John W. Booth. Cute name, happens to be the same name as Abe Lincoln's assassin. The girl looked at both photo's.

"Yeah, that guy, he lives in the same building as my boyfriend." She pointed to the building behind her. "That one. I don't know what appartment but it's one of the more expensive ones cause I know he takes the elevator up past the thirty-fith floor which some of us call the '_Gold-Suites_'."

"Thank you miss!" Well, it's true what they say, you really can't beat the old fashioned ways. He called the rest of his squad together and lead them into the building where they got another name from the front desk, this time female but the manager said it wasn't the name of the girl in the photo. They took the elevator up to the fortieth floor and entered suite '_Forty-Eighteen_'. It was nice, lots of space. Way more luxurious than a marine could ever hope his quarters to be. They began looking around hoping to find anything that might indicate as to who they _really_ are and why they were on the run. No such luck. There was little if anything left, a few bins filled with the burning remains of paper, not enough to even make out a few sentences. There were no personal affects of any kind, they must have been living with only the most basic of needs in mind incase they ever needed to make a quick escape.

Private Barnes returned from one of the bedrooms holding an old rumpled photo of two men standing behind ten children who looked to be...identical. Well it's something and that's better than nothing. They decided to return to base, they'd send a team in to scan for any skin flakes, hairs or other form of DNA that could possibly identify the former occupants of this suite.

_Meanwhile..._

I can feel and the means I'm not dead. Do I have one of them inside me? The last thing I remember is the Queen's bladed tail stabbing Jenny in the shoulder and then me. What did it do to us? It hurt like we were being burned by fire. I feel so tired, need to sleep some more, but where are the others?

_Fear not child, they are safe._

Who said that? I know I'm alone, I can't feel anything near me. Wait, how can I tell that I'm alone? I can sense my entire environment, it's rather distorted but I can _feel_ what's around me, the secreted resin of the walls, the occasional drone walking nearby. And I'm stuck, I'm trapped inside something, but what?

_You have been cacooned my child_

'Cacooned? Why? How? Who are you?' I knew this voice was in my head, I didn't hear it with my ears but rather my mind.

_I am mother. I am ruler. But I fear that I shall not rule for long. I am dying._

'You're the Queen, aren't you?'

_Yes. Those of your former race call me 'Queen'. Forgive me for what I did to you and the others, I had no choice._

'What do you want? Why did you poison us with the neurotoxin?'

_I did no such thing. Though I did fill your body with a chemical it was not for the purpose of rendering you a host. If I had wanted you to be a host I would have had one of the drones do it._

She had a point. I faintly remember the a drone pushing Suzie forward towards the Queen's tail before I passed out.

'If you don't want us as hosts, then what do you want us for?' I hoped it wasn't food, or some twisted sense of curiosity towards a new spiecies.

_I needed the one you call Jeh-Neh._

'Why?' I didn't realize I could sound so demanding through the power of my own mind. It was kind of creepy.

_I am dying, but I was foolish in thinking I would have the strength to create a mother-egg before the end came. I did not, and now the hive is in danger. I needed your dominant female to be my heir. She shall rule in my stead._

O-kay, I wasn't exactly expecting that. I thought she wanted to kill her rival so she couldn't gain control over her hive. Obviously human understanding of hive dinamics is in serious need of updating.

'So what about the rest of us, are we just spare meat?'

_Hardly, you shall be Jen-Neh's mate, you shall be what the Hue-Mans call 'King' and the others will be your loyal guard and advisors, as my Praetorians were to me._

'What if we refuse?'

_You cannot, you can never return to the Hue-Mans world._

'And why not?' I can't help it if I'm a little cocky every now and then, it tends to happen when I'm worried.

_Because you must look Hue-Mans to exist in the Hue-Mans world. Now you truely are a hybrid in blood and appearance, my child._

With that my cacoon split open and my prehensile tail with it's bladed tip pointing upwards and outwards sprang forth...wait... tail!?!?

* * *

**Authors Comments**

Yes I know it's a crappy chapter and I'm sorry. I just couldn't really think of what else to write and I really needed to finish writting this today before Xmas. Oh and by the way, MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!! I hope XenoSanta brings you all what you want for Christmas, if not then you've been a naughty little facehugger this year!

Anyway I'll probably post the next chapter after the new year, so until then dear readers, faretheewell!


	12. Metamorphosis

I was standing over the still cocooned bodies of the others examining my tail, clawed hands and my dark brown exoskeleton. It wasn't the deep black color that the other Xenomorphs had, obviously a result of my human heritage. I was slightly pissed off that the Queen had done this to us without so much as offering us a choice, but I guess accepting the invitation into her hive was enough of an answer for her.

I wasn't all that angry about the change, it was the manner in which she changed us that got to me. After I awoke two hours ago she'd invited me into her chamber and explained the whole situation to me.

* * *

_-Flashback-_

_The Queen sat proud and regal on her hind legs glancing down at me as if to demonstrate that I were the child in need of her guidance, which of course was the situation. However I could 'sense' that sitting in that position was a great effort on her part. I could feel that she barely had the strength for it._

_-Come my child, allow me explain...- I cut her off mid-sentence, obviously it wasn't the smartest thing to do to a being almost twice my size with razor-sharp teeth and claws, but I wasn't exactly in the right state of mind at the time._

_"Explain? That you've mutilated our bodies! Changed us against our will! What gave you the right!?"_

_Surprisingly she remained calm during my whole outburst, I could sense her...amusement? She thought this was funny!? Goddamned bitch! It wasn't bad enough she'd fucked up our lives more than they already were, but now she thought it was funny!_

_-Calm yourself my child. All will be explained to you. For I did what was necessary for the continuation of our species.- I suddenly got this overwhelming sense of sadness, it wasn't my own but I could feel it coming from somewhere else...coming from the Queen. This caused me to sober up a little. I was still pissed, but something about the Queen calmed me slightly, as if her presence, her very existence was all that stood between myself and utter madness. She must have been waiting for some kind of response, when she heard none she continued._

_-You must understand, we have been hunted for eons by countless races. Some for glory, others for greed but mostly for their own desire to survive. We have surpassed and out lived all but one of the ancient races. The Hunters. Now we are under threat from not only them but also from your former species." She paused as she tilted her head in silent communication with her drones. Once she was done she continued._

_-What I have done to you and the others is what I would do to a Praetorian if no other mother egg were available.-_

_"You've turned me into a Queen!?" So not only am I no longer in the guise of a human but I've had a sex change too. Perfect! Goodbye Michael and hello Michelle!_

_-Hardly. The dosage of the chemical I gave you, determines what you become, since you are not true Xenomorphs the others became warriors and drones. You and your Queen however were both given double the dosage. You are now Father and she Mother. Have you not noticed your significant increase in height?-_

_What? I looked down at my feet, around the immediate area and to my surprise I found that I was indeed taller and I had a much larger frame than before. The praetorians in the room stood at almost nine-feet and I was almost double their height, I also noticed that like the Queen and the praetorians I had a crown, it was far more pronounced than that of the praetorians but nowhere near as large or elegant as the Queen's._

_"Wait, I've never heard of a Xenomorph...'King' before. Is there such a thing?" I had only heard and read about drones, warriors, praetorians and the Queen no one, not even the 'infamous' Ellen Ripley had come up against a King before._

_-Indeed there are Kings, however they are a far rarer breed than even my own. When a Queen chooses a mate, that mate becomes her King, his position in the hive is second only to the Queen. I have not had a mate since I was brought to this world many hundreds of turns of the sun ago.-_

_"Wait, you mean someone brought you here? Who?" I could guess that 'turns of the sun ago' is their definition of years. But many hundreds? Human's had only discovered this planet twenty years ago and then terraformed it to be more suitable than it's natural form._

_-The Hunters. The other race. Through the generations they have hunted us on worlds long since barren of two-legged beings. For many thousands of turns they have hunted us, in fact this very mountain that houses this...prison is of their design. They brought me here to for their young to hunt. Through the ages we have discovered that hunting our species for them is a right of passage into the adult world, few survive encounters with us, but some of us are also taken by them as trophies.-_

_She said the word 'trophies' with an unmistakable hint of disgust. That creature I got the disk off of must have been one of them and from its size I could tell I wouldn't want to fuck with one in my human form._

_"If Jenny is the new Queen, then that means you don't have a hell of a lot of time left with us do you?" Yeah I know, it's not the nicest thing to say to someone who's dying, but considering the circumstances I think she'd cut me some slack._

_-No, I don't. I have only enough time to imprint my memories and the memories of those that came before me into the new Mother's mind. Normally I would not need to do such a thing as all our memory is carried across from generation to generation through our blood, but the Hue-Mans side of her bloodline has tainted her, it is fortunate that I can repair her so she can become a true mother.-_

_-End Flashback-_

* * *

After that she'd sent me away so she could rest. I'd returned to the 'changing room' to watch over the others and try to explain to them the situation as best I could when they awoke. Willow of course will need no explanation, to her this would be a gift from heaven itself, becoming the subject of her studies. Jenny will most likely consider it her duty to carry on the Queen's legacy, now that we have nowhere else to go.

Two drones had now entered the room, they came in every now and then to check on the others to make sure they were ok. I was happy to see them come, it got kind of lonely sitting in a room with nine cocooned people. I couldn't talk to them, I didn't even know how or even if they were intelligent. The Queen was smart, as were her Praetorians but reports about Xenomorphs without a Queen often mentioned them running around like headless chickens...psycho-killer headless chickens. I was about to turn around to continue my watch on Jenny who's now extremely large cocooned body lay before me when something happened.

-_do...t..orr...bou...he.._- Was that the Queen? She didn't sound as clear as she normally did. No, it wasn't the Queen, it didn't even sound like her 'voice'. I looked around and saw one of the drones looking right at me. Had he, she, it..whatever said that?

"Pardon? I didn't quite hear that." It tilted it's head in communication but I heard nothing from the drone.

-_She is attempting to communicate with you mentally. We do not have ears in the normal sense, we can hear but we can only hear the location of a noise, not what the noise is._- The drone must have asked the Queen what I'd been saying. Instead of the obvious question I should have asked about what she had said I instead...

"She?" I had no idea Xenomorphs even had genders, Willow would flip when she found out!

-_Yes, she. All drones are female, you did not think a male could raise my young, maintain the hive and did you?_- I could again sense amusement coming from her.

"Well how am I supposed to understand them, or even talk to them?"

-_Speak with your mind. You have the ability, you simply lack the knowledge. I have searched the minds of Hue-Mans during the twenty turns they have been here, many do not speak the same words and must learn the words of others to understand one another. Think of this as simply learning to understand and speak our words._-

"You scanned the minds of humans? I've never heard of a Queen having that particular ability." It was true, most Xenomorph Queens while smart hadn't shown a level of quick thinking that humans did.

-_Then they must have been young. It would take centuries for a hive mother to master her mental abilities. They may carry the knowledge of those that came before, but they lack the living experience of that knowledge. Simply knowing what something is or does is not enough, you must have experienced it and survived to truly be a wise being._-

"Like yourself?" I added jokingly. Ok sure, she may have violated me and turned me into a miniature version of Godzilla but she was a great coversationalist.

-_Perhaps. Now I suggest you practice your mental abilities with the drones, when you become the hive's Father you will need to be able to communicate with the children._-

She went silent after that, obviously returning to her resting. I decided to give it a shot, the drone remained in the room with me, staring at me, studying me almost. I cocked my head and spoke with my mind.

-**Hello? Testing, one, two, three...**-

-_H...l...n...u...ea...e..._-

It repeated the message over and over again, I focused all I could on her voice, I needed to learn the Xenomorph language if we were going to survive here.

-_H..llo..c..n...ou...ear...m..._-

Dammit! I can't understand it. She said it takes a Queen centuries to master her mental abilities, god knows how long it'll take me. Well I'm not known for giving up, none of us are, I'll get my abilities working, if it's the last thing I do.

I continued my vigil over the others for the next two days. In that time James, Danny and Willow had awoken. The initial shock of discovering that they were now Xenomorphs was about the same as mine. First came shock, then anger and after explaining the situation on behalf of the dying Queen, understanding. Willow was as I'd expected exited and took to her new body with interest rather quickly. James considered it a great advantage, he was stronger, faster and had greater senses than before, but he was still rather irked about being caught and forced into it. Danny was very pissed, he was the techno junkie, he thrived on gadgets and gizmos, but this new existence left him believing he couldn't do that anymore. I'd explained he still had hands and although we no longer had eyes, we could still see the human way through a particular sensory organ between our mouths and frontal lobe.

By the next day all except Jenny had awoken, it went pretty much the same for them aswell, well except for Mal. He thrived on his new body after he'd gotten over the the shock of waking up to find he was now nine-feet tall, had a tail. After taking it all in, he'd gone over all the advantages that this change would give to his survival skills, much like how James and Mona had gone over the strategic biological advantages.

The Queen summoned me every day asking how everyone was and if we needed anything. She'd taken to not talking mentally to the others deciding that it would only confuse them further than they already were. I'd thanked her for that, the situation was barely being held together by a thread and Jenny was still out cold. We could see by the size of her cocoon that she would be as big as the current Queen. I found myself as usual sitting close to Jenny's cocooned form, I'd spend hours every day here waiting for her to emerge while the others conversed, explored and got to grips with our new existence as Xenomorphs. I was borought out of my thoughts by Willow.

"I've been going over some theories of mine and I've come to the conclusion that even if the Queen hadn't done this to us we would have become Xenomorphs eventually anyway."

"What? Are you sure?"

"Pretty much, I think all the Queen's done is introduce a substance that's excellerated our natural development. Without the Queen's interference we would have reached this level of development in eight maybe ten years. It's a good thing this happened in a Hive, if had happened in a human Colony then God knows what would have happened to us."

'_God knows indeed..._'

* * *

**Authors Comments:**

Sorry for the longer than usual wait but I've been experiencing the dreaded _WRITERS BLOCK!! _This chapter isn't my best, but I hope you all enjoy it. One question I'm sure I'll be asked so I'll answer it now is how can Willow and Mike '_talk'_ if they're now Xeno's...my answer is that even though they are now Xenomorphs they too speak through a mental bond that is more developed between the Hybrids since they're more in tune with each others minds (_both chemically and mentally_) than with the Xenomorphs. I hope that made sense, anyway read and enjoy and feel free to leave a note R&R is welcome.


	13. Inheritence

Almost a week passed before Jenny finally broke out of her cacoon and the sight that greeted us was astounding. Unlike us other hybrids her exoskeleton was pitch black like normal Xenomorphs, Willow theorized that it had to do with her longer gestation period in the cacoon, removing as much of the human DNA as possible as not to contaminate her future offspring.

Fortunetly she remained the same Jenny we knew and loved, however the time soon came for her to meet the current Queen and to recieve her knowledge and that of those before her.

_Stand before me child._

I don't quite understand what happened between them, they simply stood and stared at each other for what seemed like days but I knew to be mere hours. Eventually Jenny stood and walked out of the chamber. I never understood women as a human and I certainly haven't learned anything about them as a Xenomorph. As soon as Jenny had cleared the chamber the Queen looked at all her children who had gathered here, issuing her final command as Queen she ordered her Praetorians to kill her.

It was beautiful in a morbid sort of way, how she just stood there while her Praetorians slashed and dismembered her piece by piece. I would have expected her to cry out in pain, but I assume she's been in agony for a while now and this is nothing in comparison. If anything, to her this is probably a release. While the bloodied corpse of the former Queen was being ripped to pieces I decided to check on Jenny, I could feel through our connection that she was upset over the Queen's execution...for lack of a better word. I best put on the old charm.

* * *

_Meanwhile..._

_Colony Twelve, Marine Command - Conference Hall One_

Director Cole wasn't a happy man, actually he was furious. USM HQ had ordered him to delay the attack on the hive for a week. In that time two more patrols had been attacked and to make matters worse the Xenomorphs had been caught on holovid by Colony Twelve's media, not only that but it had been recorded while one of the said USM patrols were being torn to pieces by the bastards. The public's reaction was down right apocalyptic. Thousands of panic-striken citizens demanded to leave the planet, while others were demanding the USM Marines send in an entire army to protect them.

It was bound to happen, Xenomorphs would have eventually become public knowledge sooner or later and it pissed Director Cole off that it had to happen on his watch. The entire USM War Council were blaming the whole messy situation on him. If that wasn't bad enough they'd also decided that all research and experiments on Xenomorphs are to be discontinued. No samples were to be taken, dead or alive, not even the Queen. They'd also decided to send in an '_expert_' in Xenomorph extermination and of course it had to be _her!_ That woman! She was no longer an enemy of the USM, they were now practically begging her to come to Vidina to sort out '_Cole's mess_' as they'd so elegantly put it.

However, the strangest thing of all is that there's been absolutely no Xenomorph activity since the media showed the recording of the Xenomorph attack. It was as if they'd known that everyone had become aware of their existance. And now of course he had to wait for confirmation on the identities of the people in a photograph found by one of the marines. Ten children and two adult males, one a general and the other a scientist. Cole was suddnely pulled from his musings by his computer terminal's beeping.

_United Systems Military Communicae: Gold Channel._

_Authorization Requested..._

_User: Director T. Cole_

_Access Code: 58S2HA-USM52GB-MT53CK_

_Code Accepted, Thank you Director Cole._

_URGENT - RE-HYBRIDS_

_From USM Chief of Staff - Major General S. Helman_

_To: USM Special Projects - Temporary Field HQ: Vadina - Director T. Cole_

_Director Cole you may be aware that nineteen years ago the USM Bio-Weapons Research Station on Cabara was the site where Dr Hikaru Kasaragi and General Frank Morrison were ordered to create a batch of Xenomorph-Human Hybrids. They succeeded. However five years later the project was cancelled and all the test subjects were ordered to be terminated. The photo you discovered as well as the security holo's of the young man and woman confirm our belief that General Morrison defied direct orders and allowed the hybrids to live. We cannot confirm due to the death of General Morrison during the Praxis-Minor Civil War._

_We must assume that all ten hybrids are alive and living on Vadina. If what the security holo's show is true then they have advanced to the point where they can communicate with Xenomorphs, if this is so then that will make them extremely dangerous to the safety of the USM and all our colony worlds._

_Your orders are: _

_Locate and terminate the hybrids at any and all cost._

_Terminate the hive and all Xenomorphs within it._

_Terminate the Queen._

_Those are our orders, we expect you to follow them. Failure is not acceptable._

_Maj. General S. Helman_

_USM Chief of Staff_

Cole smiled to himself, one man's failed experiment is another man's salvation. He wouldn't need the Xenomorphs if there were already hybrids in existance. Yes, he already had big plans for those hybrids and by the time the USM brass found out they'll be begging for his forgiveness!

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

It's been a while, but I managed to finished this chapter. I don't know when the next one will be but don't worry this story isn't dead yet. R&R welcome!


	14. Calm Before The Storm

_The Hive_

It's been less than twenty four hours since the death of the previous Queen and the hive is buzzing with activity. Jenny, our new Queen has accepted her role and will soon begin producing eggs. Although we don't require additional numbers to our population since we are at the very least ten-thousand strong, we instinctually have the need to gather hosts. Though ten-thousand is more than enough to over-power anything the USM could ever possibly throw at us, I can't help but be concerned. One certain human has shown a particular resistance to our kind, even death won't stop her from her murderous ways, there's no telling if _she_ will make an appearance. We can be sure that they'll throw all their might at us, it is of course human nature. However thanks to our knowledge of the military, their tactics and the tools available to them the hive shall be prepared. Mal and Mona (_who both metamorphed into Warriors_) have been training the Hive's warriors on how to best combat against marines, although they're already extremely well trained through eons of evolution and instinct as the greatest killing machines in the universe, they have little experience against synthetics who according to news reports (_and intercepted military communications_) we picked up a few days before entering the hive were re-activated and sent to Vadina for '_testing_'. Although their true purpose is all too clear to us, Xenomorph extermination.

If we were still in human form we hybrids would be feeling worried about the situation, however our newly developed Xenomorph bodies and senses have totally erased those feelings that hinder the productivity of the hive. If asked we would say that we're feeling _antisipation_ at the thought of facing a race of synthetics created to destroy Xenomorphs.

Mal had suggested that we send a small rading party of drones into Colony Twelve to buy some time. Four or five drones should be enough to assertain their current level of readyness for an attack and offer a false sense of security in thinking the hive is young and has a population of less than thirty, making this raid seem like an attempt at gathering hosts to increase our numbers. We'd all agreed to it and Jenny informed us that it was a tried and tested method that Xenomorphs implament on a regular basis. The previous Queen had decided against using it when humans had awoken the hive several years ago, as it would have alerted the colonies too soon of their existance.

We shall make the first move, and as an old human writer once wrote, '_the game is afoot_'.

_

* * *

_

_Colony Twelve_

It was a slow peacefull morning in Colony Twelve, everyone had settled into a new routine and worked their everyday lives around the security checkpoints and cerfews. Certain sectors were given special leave on cerfews due to the number of nightclubs and bars found in the entertainment districts. All in all everyone was content and fairly happy with the situation. If only things could stay that way.

_

* * *

_

Joint Colonial-USM Marine Unit Alpha-Two-Seven were on routine patrol of the colony's outer perimeter. Everyone was on edge due to the number of patrols that had '_vanished_' as the media claimed. The Colonials knew nothing of the situation but rumours were abound of some native wildlife from the unexplored regions that had attacked and killed the missing patrols. The USM marines however were all too aware of the Xenomorph threat, they had read reports from the _Nostromo_, _LV-426_, _Fury-161_ and of course the _Auriga_.

With each report came a grimer and far more sickening account of Xenomorph activities. These soldiers had a reason to be afraid, they were on a hive world. There was no telling how many _bugs_ were in the hive but intelligence claimed it could be no more than twenty or thirty, however that didn't help ease anyone's nerves.

At the same time as the patrol was nearing it's next radio checkpoint a local colony twelve news team were setting up their equipment hoping to interview the nearby patrol. Lilly Woods, Channel 12's newest up and coming reporter was overjoyed that her boss had given her this assignment. It wasn't exactly approved by the USM so it was decided that when the patrol reached their 3:00pm checkpoint they'd conduct the interview live so as not to risk having any recordings confiscated by the military.

Her boss however was worried about her safety, a lot of people not just soldiers have been disapearing in the wilderness lately, but everyone was fairly confident that nothing could happen so close to the colony walls, right?

"Alright guys here they come, now remember we're going live so there's nothing they can do to us without a USM Commander's authorisation." Lilly's calmness was most welcome to her crew, however on the inside she was a nervous wreck. She'd never reported on anything as big as the USM before, the most she'd ever gotten were human interest stories about old women living alone in slums and kids helping out for charity. But this, this was huge and it was fast coming up for her to put on her game face.

The patrol had just finished checking in when out of nowhere a female reporter and her camera crew came right at them. It was only the deepest most ingrained parts of their training that didn't blow them away the second they made themselves known. However it was damn tempting.

"Corporal, Lilly Woods Channel 12 news. What can you tell us about the recent disapearance of USM and Colonial patrols? Is it true that some as of yet unknown creature native to this world was responsible?" Corporal Dan Mathews, USM Marines leader of the patrol was about to order his men to disperse these civilians and arrest them, however he noticed a little green light on the camera and remembered his training in dealing with the media. A red light meant the camera was on and a green light meant they were broadcasting live.

"No comment ma'am." Corporal Mathews shouldered his way past the reporter and her crew walking as briskly as possible without it seeming too hurried. You can't let the public see how unnerved an experience has made you. That's when it all went straight to hell. They'd managed to walk a hundred yards from the reporter when suddenly he heard one of his men scream in terror.

Corporal Mathews knew what he had to do, the new procedures for Xenomorph encounters were to first inform headquarters and then exterminate with extreme prejudice.

"HQ, HQ this is Joint Unit Alpha-Two-Seven. We are on a bug hunt, I repeat we are on a bug hunt. Over!"

"Alpha-Two-Seven please repeat did you say bug hunt?" The higher-ups had decided that the code word for '_Xenomorph encounter_' was to be '_bug hunt_'. Apparently someone had listened to the data files of the automated recorders aboard the Sulaco and found Private Hudson's description of the mission as a '_bug hunt_' amusing.

"Affirmative HQ. I repeat we are on a bug hunt." Corporal Mathews hated this new procedure, but understood that HQ needed to be aware of every situation so as to keep it contained. However there was a situation they'd never concidered, the channel 12 news crew broadcasting the encounter live across the entire planet.

"Oh fuck this!" Mathews couldn't wait for HQ to push papers and file reports about his decleration of an encounter. His men needed him and there were civilians to protect to boot!

Mathews raised his pulse rifle at the Xenomorph that was still ripping appart the same man who'd first screamed. "Ok guys, on my command. FIRE!!!" Seven pulse rifles firing at full auto at a single Xenomorph was more than enough to end it's existance. And then...nothing. No second Xenomorph. This was unusual, they typically attacked in groups and always simultaniously. But one? Just _one_!? It was beyond stra...

Before he could finish that thought, five Xenomorphs jumped them from behind, taking down all four colonials and another of his own men. Leaving only himself and Private Watson. Before he could even train his weapons on the creatures they were gone, along with the men they'd attacked. This was new, a diversion tactic where they sacrifice one of thier own and then pounce in force. Fortunetly he had just enough sense in him to activate his communicator.

"HQ, HQ be advised the bugs have developed new tactics. I repeat the bugs have developed new tactics." He looked towards Watson and then towards where the news crew were, at least they were alive. "Come on, lets get them out of here!" Watson could only nod in responce.

"C..corporal, wh..what were those things, where are your men...what the hell is going on!?" Lilly Woods was in hysterics, she'd never seen anything like it in her entire life, six fully trained soldiers taken down in less than thirty seconds. Mathews sighed, he didn't have time for this so he slapped her across the face.

"Snap out of it, this area isn't secure we need to get back inside, NOW!" Lilly nodded in agreement. She looked to her crew, they got the message and turned to run towards the nearby Colony entrance that was just a few hundred yards away. Mathews could only hope that the Xenomorphs were too busy with his own men to care about the rest of them.

Just as Lilly, her crew and Mathews had crossed the entrance into the Colony where twelve fully armed USM Marines were waiting they all heard someone screaming in terror. Watson! Mathews turned hoping against hope he'd only tripped on a root or a weed but no, there was a Xenomorph dragging the poor bastard deeper into the wilderness. Mathews was struggling to get to his friend, his only remining team member but the other Marines were holding him back. And to make matters worse the cameraman was filming the whole thing, live. Mathews turned towards Lilly angrily.

"Happy now!? You've got your story, but I hope you can live with the price tag it came with."

With that he turned and stormed off towards HQ, no matter how angry he was he knew instinctivly to follow orders, he needed to be debriefed and hoped to god the backlash of this wouldn't result in his court marshal or worse...execution.

_

* * *

_

_The Hive_

Mike stared at the six new hosts currently being glued to the wall. He was aware of the news crew that had been present at the latest hunt and had suggested to Jenny that they be left unharmed. By broadcasting their report to the rest of the world they would spread panic across all the colonies and panic was a useful tool when handled properly. They'd made their move, now it was the humans turn.


	15. Meet Betty

_8th Bank of Anlee, Tropica VI, Loscaru System._

A body hit the solid steel wall, the force of the impact enough for even the hard of hearing to hear the unmistakable sound of several bones shattering. Casually walking past the body, Ripley slid a blood stained key-card through the magnetic reader of secure lockbox 215. Opening the box she locates her prize, a data module that supposedly contains information on several illegal business transactions involving Xenomorph eggs. Smiling to herself she picks up the module and takes a moment to wonder if Call would like the diamond necklace stashed in the back of the lockbox, giving the thought the consideration due to suck an important decision (an entire half second) she takes the necklace.

Her task done she turns and runs back the way she came passing several bodies, a few missing vital body parts. Making her way back out the rather large and gaping hole in the wall made using some of Johner's more potent concoctions, she dives into the waiting transport being driven by Call. Righting herself into a sitting position in the front passenger seat she looks at Call and grins, naughtily.

Call notices her partners look and rolls her eyes in exasperation. It was always the same, she got that look on her face when she once again proved her plan worked out flawlessly. She then smiled, Ripley was always fun to be around and always made her feel like a real person which to Call was worth more than diamond...wait what was that Ripley was looking at.

"Ripley, what is that?"

Grinning once again Ripley held out the diamond necklace for Calls inspection, knowing exactly how she'd react.

"What the hell!? Ripley!! You were only supposed to take the module! We're not..."

"Thieves?" Ripley asked. "Call, if you haven't noticed, we are. And need I remind you that when we met you were a member of a crew of cut-throats and pirates who'd hijacked several cryo-units so the military could breed an army of aliens for their bio-weapons division." Smiling softly she continued. "You know that whoever owned this," she gave the necklace a little shake "can more than afford to buy a new one for whichever floozy of the week it was meant for."

Shaking her head in defeat Call simply grinned and went back to concentrating on her driving.

_20 minutes later. The Betty._

Johner was a simple man with simple tastes. He liked his booze, he liked his women and he loved his guns. Standing on the deck of the Betty waiting for the robot and the scary lady as he called them to return, he once again wondered how his life had ended up the way it had, hunting alien eggs that were spread across the entire galaxy. Sometimes they came across a small hive of Xeno's and weren't those times a ray of fucking sunshine?

"I'm gettin' too old for this shit." He mumbled to himself. And it was true too, at seventy-four years old Johner wasn't exactly at the peak of his life anymore, however thanks to modern medicine the average human could live to be around a hundred and twenty years old so he wasn't past his best years yet. In recent years every birthday Johner's had has been a miracle in his eyes, old Mercs like him were rare. Most mercs were usually young and stupid, so they were killed off pretty quick others like him learned to survive, but still most were killed for some stupid reason fighting other people's battles or pulling off jobs like the one he, Christie, Elgyn, Hillar, Call and Vriess had pulled for that General on the Auriga. What a disaster that had been, half the crew killed in under 24 hours, along with a load of soldier-boys. Everytime he got indigestion he had nightmares about aliens bursting out his chest.

And Ripley, whooo what a babe! The years had been more than kind to her, something about that alien blood kept her young and virile which more than pleased Call. What a waste. A fine looking woman like Ripley having no interest in a fine specimen of manhood like him, instead she got her jollies off with the toaster.

Sighing, he walked off towards the cargo-bay, perhaps he could pester Vriess. It kinda shocked everyone to discover the '_wheels_' was actually a year younger than Johner. Sure as hell didn't look it.

The sound of an approaching transport drew his attention and he knew that the girls were back.

"Johner! Get this piece of shit in the sky!" Which translated from Ripley-Speak to: '_We're going to be chased and shot at very soon_'

"Well shit..."

_One Hour Later_

"Dammit! Ripley! You sure no one got look at ya?" They'd been lucky this time, they'd gotten away and the guards in the bank had been too disoriented by the explosion to get a proper look at Ripley before she'd knocked out those who hadn't been knocked out or killed by the blast. Which later meant there was no chase or even a warrant out on the Betty...for this job anyway.

"Positive. Why'd you ask Jon?" God he hated it when she called him that. It made him sound like he was five years old.

"I'm askin' cause there a message for you from USM-HQ. I knew they'd catch wind of us someday, poking out noses into all this alien shit, I knew it!"

"Calm down Johner, they've known about us for years, and they've left us alone because we're mostly cleaning up their messes or stopping rival Governments from getting their hands on Xenomorph eggs." Ripley's calm voice of reason was always enough to settle Johner's nerves it seems. "If they'd seriously wanted us out of the way, we'd be dead a long time ago."

"Yeah, shut up you dumb bastard, all that battery acid you drink's been rotting whatever's left of your brain." Vriess smirked, he always loved getting a few words in to piss Johner off. Not as much as he used to years ago, since they'd both somewhat grudgingly become friends, somehow.

"Why don't you take a walk...whoops, I mean wheel yourself out the airlock." Oh yeah, '_best_' friends.

"Shut up, _both_ of you! Lets see what the message is shall we?" Walking on, Ripley leads the small group towards the bridge. There she enters the command codes she acquired when Johner and Vriess made her First Officer of the Betty to access any and all incoming messages.

_United Systems Military Communicae: Silver Channel._

_Authorisation Requested..._

_User: Number8_

_Access Code: X37S81-TRANS9901265-ER008_

_Code Accepted, Thank you Number8_

_URGENT - Vadina Epidemic, Xenomorph Outbreak._

_From USM Chief of Staff - Major General S. Helman_

_To: Miss Ellen Ripley, First Officer Aboard The Betty._

_Miss Ripley,_

_The USM requires your expertise in the area of Xenomorph Extermination. A survey team sent to explore the wilder areas of Vadina accidentally discovered a dormant Hive and while performing their duty set about a chain of events that has lead to the deaths of over fifty people. It is only a matter of time before this infestation leads to the mass slaughter of countless innocents. Already the local media has video evidence of 'native wildlife' tearing apart a squad of joint USM-Colonial Marines._

_As history has shown you have the most experience dealing with Xenomorphs, especially when it comes to their extermination. If you and the crew of the Betty perform this duty for us we will completely wipe your records clean and cover you financially, 5,000,000 credits each._

_Miss Ripley, in truth we are desperate. The people of Vadina, if not the entire United Systems need reassurance that the situation is not out of control, they need a hero and who better than the woman who's gone up against Xenomorph's in the past, alone, and survived._

_With highest regards_

_Maj. General S. Helman_

_USM Chief of Staff_

They stared at the screen in silent wonder and it was almost ten whole minutes until Johner finally reacted in a way they could all agree with.

"well shit..."

* * *

**Authors Comments:**

Whew, it's been a while but Chapter 15 is now _finally_ up. Enjoy and please R&R.


End file.
